Gaedren smiles at the forward nature in which the archmage explained the situation. Not too much not too little. It was respectable. He nodded to the older male, placing his hand out.
" I am not sure if others have said this before, but I appreciate your honesty. Then I suppose it would be right time to offer a position or deal. We wish to learn of this tower as much as possible, gather our dreams and appropriately leave. I had gathered these individuals and I plan on seeing this through. You said you needed more persons for some of the puzzles and traps, so its possible we may eventually become said people. If that is the case, giving us information will increase our chances of survival and thus your chances of escape. So can you please tell us what you know of the levels, floors, monsters that plague this tower? Any Advice and information? If so I promise to see you and anyone else who might want to.. out of here. "
"Well I'm afraid to say you've already fallen into the first trap the tower has to offer, though I admit you're aren't given a choice."
Avarice's eyes light up.
"We're not in the tower yet. Not really."
"The whole thing here is an elaborate extradimensional zone."
"Its a complex trap mechanism."
"Imagine three towers side by side."
"Our entrance point is like floor zero. Here in Nexus is floor one."
"After that everything diverges. Each floor in three parts each part of their own individual tower."
"Floor 2B would put you in tower one, while as Floor 2A would put you in tower 2."
"Calling floor names can move you between towers, but the only way to hit the top, is to guess lucky, or to use the ascend commands."
"Yoi hit the top in the wrong tower, it sends you back to floor zero."
"But,you hit the right tower. Then the whole thing resets. That's why this whole place changes at seemingly random."
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Razzem'Jan eyes Avarice with a great deal of respect, "You're at least damn close." He nods.
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"Show off."
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Gaedren is confused as to why Avarice seems to suddenly guess this so well, " Well said Mistress Avarice, then wouldnt that mean by that very ideal that there have been persons who have reached the 'right' tower at the 'right' time? In which case what became of them? Did they perish and thus the labyrinth tower restructured to give the next person a clean chance or did they succeed and thus get sent far off somewhere else to which no one outside of the tower thus hears of them? "
Gaedren sighs, " What I am trying to say is, we are already here even if it is a trap, the issue now is dealing with the trap. Every trap or puzzle has a solution, even evolving ones, that is how they function. Our mission is to figure that out and survive it. "
He looks between the two knowledgeable persons, " So what is it we HAVE to learn to thus survive this trap? "
Avarice walks over to Lana and begins to speak with her.
"You see it too right?"
Lana nods her head to whatever Avarice says.
"Like your friend says, any floor can technically be the top, so given the nature of the lower floors to tend to be safer. There is still your best bet."
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Gaedren focuses on the Archmage more, " That is true but that is not particularly helpful. I'm meaning hat things are on those floors, what things are on the higher levels. If you are powerful you must have experienced such creatures to catalog for such events.. That is what I need. If nothing else I am sure you must have divination capabilities. You could point us to a place that is likely to be lower level instead of us guessing wildly. We have already heard of a floor having trolls for example. "
"The tower is locked from scrying. At least the kind I am capable of doing."
"The tower creates whatever it wants. No one can tell you about monsters, it will always change. But a short list, Dragons, demons, devils, elementals, spiders, orcs and goblinoids, ogres, trolls, and other such giants, fey, humanoids, and bizarre things in between."
"The traps change position. Be wary of stairs, there is always a false step on one of them, you step on it, it can potentially take your leg off."
"There are also standard wall placed ones that are spring loaded with weapons."
"I surmise, that the top of the correct tower is the Vault. I only found it once, after my party had perished. It's why I believe to escape requires multiple people."
"It's a seal that requires an offering of blood. A very large quantity of blood. I attempted to use the blood of the creatures that had been slain on the floor, I do not recommend that."
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Avarice moves over to Gaedren quickly and pulls on his ear and speaks into it, "He's a vampire."
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Gaedren nods to Avarice but continues to look at the archmage as if it is a normal thing. That did explain how he lived so long but brought up other such questions. Such as what really happened to those who he sent away. Or if he because a vampire from one of the monsters in the tower.
" Mhmm, well then I thank you for your service in what you could teach us. It would be selfish to ask for any assistance outside of knowledge however. Does anyone else have any questions or have I exhausted the ones that are important? If so, I believe we have other business to attend to. "
Everyone voices their thanks and intent to leave.
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Razzem'Jan nods and says, "Come see me again if you require anything."
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" Of course, you were a kind and noble host. "
After which Gaedren will bow to the 'man' and see each of his allies leave first.. before leaving in the end with the last group he keeps his eyes pealed for anything strange but generally feels no threat.
Once they are reequipped and far outside the reach of the tower Gaedren turns to the group. " Do not say anything that is unnecessary, we need to pick an area to go. make your choice known now.. do not mention anything else. Either way we should try a lower level as they said. "
"2C"
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"2A"
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"Didn't the lady from the Tavern say they already cleared 2A?"
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"Yeah. I want to see what an actual floor looks like without being eaten."
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" I agree I had the same idea, there might also be things no one quite caught. a dry run if you will.. It will take nothing but time after that we can explore other areas with little issue. "
"That sounds reasonable."
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The party arrives on floor 2A, the usual show of lights accompanying them.
The rooms are again much like the original floor. Blue-gray stone, and blue stained glass that illuminates the rooms in its hue.
You find yourself in a small antechamber, and upon the wall is emblazoned a large sign of 2A.
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Gaedren leads the party forward, Keeping his bowstring Taut as he begins carefully examining the area before moving forward. " So far so good. It does not hurt to be careful however, for all we know this floor could have reset already without anyone's knowledge. "
Gaedren hears before he sees them. A spider or two apparently the survived the prior adventuring parties wrath.
The two of them scurry across the ceiling, but aren't making a move toward Gaedren.
The room Gaedren is in is quite large, many dead spiders and wolves lay strung throughout the room.
Excepting the two remaining spiders on the ceiling, the party seems alone.
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Gaedren was not one to underestimate the creatures and silently pointed them out before aiming at one and losing a bow shot one of them.
" There, not to far "
Avarice looks at the three in amazement.
"Really?"
Before she pulls out a small red Vial and tosses it upwards.
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The spider hit by Avarice's fire immediately falls from the ceiling and lands on its back, it's legs kicking frantically until it perishes in the fire.
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The spider drops from the ceiling much the same as the other, clearly dead on impact with the floor.
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"Hah!" says Shaylee jumping up and down excitedly.
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Gaedren nods at the well placed job everyone displayed. " Retrieve your arrows if you can and stay wary. I didnt see more than those two but that does not mean there is anything else in hiding. Let's inspect the bodies as well. "
Gaedren looks to see if there is anything important before checking as making sure there any other exits.
The party finds a few salvageable arrows but nothing else among the bodies.
At the end of the room is a descending staircase.
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Gaedren is hesitant and reinterates to the party. " This is where we should be careful as well I have heard of traps that reset themselves after use. Everyone be on the lookout. Anyone else who has good eyes assist me.. I want us all to get down safely. "
He makes tender steps and wary glances at the steps and walls as they descend.
Unfortunately got Gaedren the trap instead comes from the ceiling, as a pendulum like blade comes down onto him.
"Gaedren!"
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Gaedren looks up only to catch the blade cutting across his flesh, through his armor among his chest. It continued up the way but he was able to pull his head awy before it was bisected. a long scar cuttig along the left side of his face. He breaths heavily and nervously smiles.
" Ha.. Ha.. T-that was nothing ... compared to Mistress Avarice's slaps... I'm a bit woozy though. I guess I should be a bit more careful. "
Gaedren bleed profusely from face and chest alone.
"That's my fault, I should have seen that."
"Come here Gaedren."
Avarice begins to dig through her things and pulling out a healers kit.
After Avarice stems the flow of blood she administers to him a potion.
"My apologies everyone."
"You stand back now, Lug finish job."
Lug swaggers up to Gaedren before punching him in the face.
Somehow after the pain of the punch subsides, Gaedren actually feels better.
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"Does he concern anyone else?"
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"Insanity isn't a crime. But I'm watching."
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Gaedren is staggers warily over to Avarice as she applies the healing and tender care surprised at first from the treatment. That is completely destroyed by Lug punching him in the face... with healing.
They both notice however that the application of such effects seem to be amplified by something in Gaedren's being.
" Don't step there.."
Gaedren shakes his head and continues down.
At the landing of the stairs the party finds another large room, this one is occupied by the corpse of two bears. Two broken bottles lay on the ground, the droplets of red mixture left behind leads you to believe they were probably healing potions.
At the far end of the hall, lies another corpse, that of a very large looking rodent. Behind which floats the crystal for the floor.
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" Alright, nothing seems out of ordinary... " Gaedren looks around under corpses.
" Check and see if anything is of use... Was this satisfactory Mistress Avarice? "
"Yes, at least we know what to expect now. To 2B?"
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" Let's proceed then, if there is anything you all might want to have running BEFORE we enter, best do it now. "
The party begins to drink various potions and cast their spells before nodding to Gaedren they're ready.
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Gaedren looks to the party, instructs them to place their hands on the crystal accordingly and mention " 2B "
Zoning into 2B the party finds themselves in another Antechamber.
However this time two guards have been stationed at the entrance into the hall.
They notice the party almost immediately.
Both of them appear to be goblinoids in nature, but much larger. The more concerning feature being that both are riding what is very obviously crocodiles.
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"That.. That's Bugbears. Riding crocodiles..... Ok."
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