Despite their best efforts, the words simply don't make sense to the party. If they are supposed to inform them of something, the context has not yet been presented to give them a clue as to what that might be.
Moving west to the next unexplored room, you find what was likely Hunclay's bedchamber. This bedchamber is richly appointed, with three armoires and three tall wardrobes, a canopied bed with a large locked chest at its foot, a writing desk and chair, elaborate marble tub, and a thick bearskin rug.
Before you step into the room, Eldon and Tykent both declare that the entire room radiates moderate conjuration magic. As soon as Yngvilda places one foot in the room a deep rumbling growl echoes throughout the chamber.
”Don’t suppose that’s your stomach growling, Yngvilda?” Tykent’s voice is cheerful, but his eyes wary as he looks around the room for the source of the sound.
"Hey! this whole room is glowing with conjuration magic. I wonder..." Eldon says before being interrupted by the growling.
Upon hearing the growl Yngvilda drops her spear and draws her handaxe in a smooth motion, crouching slightly to keep her centre of gravity low while she looks around for threats.
The spear knocked some hair into her eyes however and she can barely see her own feet.
Looking into the room from outside the door, Yngvilda sees nothing. Does she dare proceed into the growling room that glows with conjuration magic?
Seeing nothing, Yngvilda prepares herself by growling in response and stepping into the room, poised to fight or fly.
Yngvilda steps into the room and nothing happens, likely her growl scared off whatever was making that sound. As she pushes further into the room however, the magical ward triggers summons a real life bear with broad, powerful muscles that move beneath its brown fur, promising both speed and lethal force.
The party members who haven't yet entered the room will have no doubts what's going on as they'll hear Yngvilda's battle cry issuing forth:
"AAAaaAAaaAaAAAA!"
Almost feral herself, she charges at the bear with her shield held high. She's aiming to put as much force as she can into slamming into before it has gathered its wits.
Eldon follows Yngvilda into the room, though more slowly. Stepping into the room he looks around, judging the best place to make his stand. He moves to the right of the doorway to allow Cwm and Mak to enter unobstructed and considers how best to help.
Tykent steps into the doorway for a better look at whatever Yngvilda is yelling at. "Oh, a bear!" he comments cheerfully. "What an odd thing to keep in the bedroom, I must say." Staring at the creature, he concentrates on the spirits surrounding its aura. "Make her weak, make her. doubt, let the air thicken and her joints stiffen to keep us safe!" he mutters under his breath, eyes still locked on the bear.
Cwm groans to himself as he runs in, I'm going to regret this! He slides to a stop next to Yngvilda and tries to find some muscle to slice with his dagger.
Mak tries to rush to the room, but trips on a carpet outside and tumbles to the floor in a loud curse.
The groans from Yngvilda's attack, but howls loudly from both of Cwm's attacks. It spins to face him and swipes at him twice and then tries to bite him. If Tyken't hadn't hexed the creature, surely it would have injured Cwm further. As it was however, only one claw strikes the rogue .
Cwm cries out when he feels the powerful claw slice his chest, yup - this thing could kill me He doubles down and slashes at the paw again, hoping to take it out before he falls, calling out to the others as he completely misses, "if this thing connects, I'm going down fast!"
Yngvilda knows that Cwm is deadly when the enemy is distracted, so she tries to get her shield in the way and moves around the bear.
"I'll distract it Cwm, cut its heart out!"
When she gets there she'll try a shove
As Yngvilda moves behind the bear, Eldon steps to the side to get a clear shot past Cwm. Drawing on the experience he gained in the Kobold caves he takes careful aim at the creature before unleashing a ray of electricity.
”Now let her mind grow slow, her hide thin, her wits dull. Let our blades send her away from this place she does not belong!” Tykent continues chanting, still staring ominously at the bear from the doorway.
Though well intentioned, the fear of getting struck by the bear clearly shows in Cwm's failed attacks as he is far too tenative in execution. Though Cwm doesn't even come close to its heart, Yngvilda does with her shield. She slams her shield into its chest and staggers the large piece as she cracks several internal bones its body. Eldon lands a blast of electricity and the bear is clearly not willful enough to resist Tykent's magical chants.
The bear in response to the Ulfen's strike and swipes twice at her before trying to bite her. The heavily armored woman is ready and dodges and blocks all three strikes.
Ducking beneath blows, and interposing her shield to meet claw with shield, Yngvilda instinctively returns its roar with a [big]ROAR[/big] of her own, before slamming it with her shield and axe
Cwm works quietly while Yngvilda sings with the bear and is just as effective.
”Let her roar grow quiet, quiet, quiet...” Tykent’s voice grows softer and softer as he continues staring at the bear, flapping a hand at Eldon to try his magics.
Eldon nods to Tykent to acknowledge his suggestion and begins chanting and gesturing. Sparks envelop the halflings hands and he steps up behind Cwm, spreading his fingers towards the bear. A fan of arcing electricity fills the room.
Yngvilda and Cwm both miss their attacks.
The bear tries to make it out of the way from Eldon's blast and he would have bearl done so if it hadn't been for Tykent's well-timed evil eye, causing the bear to take full damage from the electrical strike. The bear roars again and thrashes wildly at Yngvilda and Cwm, striking the ifrit with is left claw. As the sharp claws ravage his body , he snatches the rogue up into his claw and holds him tight
Cwm ignores the blood flowing freely from his chest and starts vigorously slashing at the bear paw holding him tight.
for
for
"Cwm!" With Cwm held Yngvilda redoubles her assault
Eldon steps back and raises his hands once more, conjuring darts of force that he sends arcing toward the bear.
As the bear grabs Cwm, Tykent shakes his head. ”I don’t think you want to be in there, young man,” he says helpfully - but there is more to his words than would appear as Cwm’s body lurches instinctively into action!
Satisfied with his work, Tykent returns to his chanting.
Cwm strikes twice and deals massive damage to the large bear and with Tykent's aid he is able just bearly able to slip free of the bear's grasp. Yngvilda and Eldon add on additional damage which drops the bear to the ground.
"Are you OK Cwm? That looked like a nasty hit. We still have a couple of potions of healing that we found if you need one. That was a mighty pair of blows you struck the bear!"
After making sure Cwm is OK she will look around the room to catalogue its many treasures, paying particular attention to the desk.
Cwm slumps beside the bear, "ouch, yeah I could use one of those. I think I still have one of my own too."
Tykent asks if Cwm still requires further healing seeing that he is injured.
Otherwise he nods and tells him to let him know should the time arise.
Inside of the chest are 3,200 gp worht of coins and gemstones. A scrap of paper sits on the nightand seems to contain a few bawdy limericks. The armoires and wardrobes store rich clothing for a total of 850gp. Sitting on the writing desk is a gold ring with a fat black pearl worth over 1,000 gp.
Cwm smiles at Tykent, "thank you for that, I feel great now." He jumps to his feet and joins the others in searching the room. He eyes the ring in particular, "shame we're supposed to leave everything."
Yngvilda agrees with Cwm, looking quite glum.
"You're right, this would be a fine find in a dungeon, but having to leave it all takes the fun right out"
When she finds the limericks though she forgets her woes and snorts out most unladylike laughter, going bright red as she does so.
When she's collected herself she makes sure that they've got a good accounting and continues exploring.
Eldon leans back against the wall as the bear falls to the ground and takes a few moments to calm down.
"Well, this place certainly isn't dull! Is everyone OK?"
Seeing that Cwm is back on his feat, Eldon joins his fellows in searching and cataloguing the room. Carefully looking around while muttering an incantation to himself.
Eldon detects a faint transmutation aura coming from the scrap of paper with limericks on it
Moving slowly around the room, Eldon pauses for a moment reading the limericks and chuckles quietly to himself. Moving on he completes his initial examination of the room. He walks to the centre of the room and mutters the words of a spell turning slowly on the spot.
Spotting the faintly glowing paper he goes back over for another look.
But unable to make any sense of the magical aura, he carefully picks up the paper and says "This paper appears to be magical, I'm not sure what it is supposed to do though".
”Hmm. Well, we can always mark it down and investigate it more later!” Tykent happily jots down the contents of the room before nodding his readiness to continue.
"Hmm, let me see that again; I have an idea".
Taking the paper back from Tykent, Eldon closes his eyes and mutters and gestures casting a spell.
Using his spell, Eldon can tell that this page of limerick is actually being protected by the spell Secret Page. Using his knowledge of the spell, he knows that to remove the disguise and show the true contents on the page you would need to speak the correct special word.
Holding the page close to his face Eldon studies the writing, after a minute he looks up and smiles broadly.
"There's a secret here! All we need to do, is speak the secret word and the true message will be revealed. Any ideas? Anyone know the wizard's birthday?"
Eldon looks around at the rest of the party hopefully.
"Oh how strange! You said that the secret spell was in the spellbook too right? What about the words that were next to it. One was not crossed out; dominion?"
She says it with force toward the paper to see if anything happens.
Cwm watches the magic users trying to access the magical book of a crazed wizard and quickly leaves the room.
The last word in Yngvilda's sentence causes something to happen to the paper. The letters on the page shift and move around until a different set of words are now written on it.
Smiling at Yngvilda, Eldon looks closely at the paper trying to make sense of the revealed message.
Yngvilda looks unimpressed with the new message, preferring the limericks.
"Secret door in the clockwork lab, have we seen a clockwork lab yet do you think? We should keep an eye out for a secret door there in any case. I don't like the sound of an accuser devil either, have any of you heard of one of those?"
She checks her gear over, weapons drawn, shield lit, and starts heading toward the stairs for the next level.
"No lab yet but I can only imagine the traps we'll find there." Cwm joins Yingvilda at the stairs.
The group decides to head up to the final unexplored area in the manor, the observatory. Within this glass-domed chamber is an enormous telescope that sits upon a platform over a veritable sea of metal gears. An angled metal chair sits below the device, within reach of a cluster of pedals and levers that enable its occupant to perform adjustments to the telescope's orientation. Tables covered in books and charts occupy the southeast corner. The view of the surrounding skies afforded by the glass dome is breathtaking in its expanse.
Searching the room reveals that in addition to 50 rare star charts that
focus on strangely empty-looking swaths of the night sky, lying on the tables are an exquisite platinum astrolabe, six rare astronomy tomes of aged Taldan pedigree, and two expensive handheld telescopes.