Verris shakes her head and retorts, "Actually, we didn't even attack first. Yer friend Tiesha attacked us when we were badly injured after a fight, nearly killed some of us. We even tried to negotiate with 'er to avoid the fight. Didn't work. And...we didn't come here to fight ye, we were lookin' fer somethin' else in this place. Yer friends pulled crossbows on us down below before we could do anything. At worst, ye can say our goblin friend here attacked a giant rat. We didn't know it was yer wererat buddy. We just defended ourselves after that! I ain't a murderer! I even tried to save as many of yer friends as I could after the fights with 'em."
Verris shakes her head again, angrily, and says, "And... if all yer wrongdoin' is just hearsay, ye shouldn't have a problem goin' to the guard. They'd have to let ye go if they've got no evidence!"
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Verris' hands tighten angrily and she grits her teeth as her attempt to persuade her fails and Davor re-iterates letting them go. She exhales angrily before saying, "Fine we'll let yall go but...I better not hear anythin' about ye causin' trouble. Yall are talented and could use yer talents to help folk instead of causin' problems fer 'em!"
After the woman asks if they've any more questions, Verris sullenly asks, "Any traps or other dangers ye can think of?"
Temmer nods, about ready to ask another question before Verris beats him to it. He doesn't look happy, leaning more toward her take on things and what should be done with the Tower Girls. If they give their parole, though, he supposes he has to believe them.
The woman shakes her head "No, I mean we hadn't gotten any further. Those damn doors out there, we couldn't crack." She motions toward the large double doors you passed on your way in to this area.
Lexi peps up a bit when the conversation turns to the magicked doors.
"About those doors.... Did you guys touch them when you tried to open them? Did they zap anyone with electricity? Fire? Cold? Um...did they turn Ayala and some of your friends into wererats?"
After waiting for the answer, Lexi doesn't head back to the enchanted doors; instead, she moseys into Ayala's room looking unnaturally innocent. Once she's out of sight, the young aasimar looks around for the place in the walls most likely to have a secret door and vault beyond it.
After picking out a spot, the girl carefully looks for a secret door.
:)
The woman nods "Ayala tried to open it, it burnt her pretty good. That's part of the reason we haven't messed with it since."
Lexi goes to check Ayala's room while the others continue to question her. She notes that the sound of wind and waves comes from the wall to the east, which is strange since it appears to be a solid wall there. She doesn't find anywhere that seems to make sense for a secret door in this room though. However, she does see heaped on a table are sections of wall mural, ancient coins, pieces of jewelry, gems, bits and pieces of pottery, and more the Tower Girls must have looted from the Crow and had been planning to sell off.
In addition, there are several journals on the table, written in Varisian and a small chest is stashed under the bed.
Lexi ignores the treasures and journals and everything as she moves to another section of the wall--maybe to the east--to seek the elusive secret door.
I'm SURE Natalya said she found the first shard in a secret room off of Ayala's chamber! Where is it??!!
Lexi checks the wall where the sound is coming from and as she pushes on it, examining it, she pushes right through the wall and nearly falls out an open window. This wall, like the one they had found before must be covered in an illusion. However, she doesn't find a secret door. Perhaps Natalya meant outside of Ayala's chamber.
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Bixby frowns at the allegations that they came here to kill the Tower Girls, and agrees with Verris's sentiments.
He isn't sure what to do with the survivors. Though he would like to turn them over to the authorities, he recognizes that they have a mission to perform.
"You will find as many of your companions tied up as we could save," he says as he begins to thumb through the journals.
Surely, this will detail five to ten conspiracies I have long suspected.
With all the longshanks busy talking about not shanking, Gurk moves on to the large double doors, curious. Maybe Gurk can set doors on fire.
Gurk goes to check out the door while the others are busy. The door just looks like a solid piece of metal almost. There are no hinges or handles or locks or gaps. There are two sets of symbols on the door, one on the left hand sight and the other on the right. As Gurk moves up to try and figure out a way to open the door he touches it an is immediately burnt.
"It burns! But Gurk burns back!" Gurk shouts, flaring a bit of flame from his hand onto the door.
Verris is about to go check on Lexi when Gurk starts shouting and attacks the giant, magical, flame-producing metal door with flames. She sighs.
"Should search the rest of the area before trying to open the magical door. May find clues to how to deal with it around here."
"Should also escort Jessela and her friends to one of the boats below."
"Yes," Temmer agrees, pulling Gurk away from the door before he burns the whole place down, stone or not. "Let's make sure the ladies depart without scuttling our own boats."
He frowns as Copperpot decides to simply start going through the journals, with no respect for the writers' privacy. Sure, the writers were very likely dead now, but they still deserved a bit of decency.
"Come on," he says to their captives. "As we agreed, we'll see you out."
Lexi is amazed that no one has interrupted her search for the secret room (and next shard!) yet. Knowing that her luck is likely to run out soon, she employs a new strategy: Casting detect magic, she starts examining the walls in the next room, knowing that unless the secret door's a foot thick, her spell should be able to detect the shard (or any other magic item) beyond it.
And if the secret door's a foot thick, it'll be too heavy to open anyways!
Lexi moves out of the room on some apparent mission as she searches around the place, just as Bixby goes inside to start reading over the journals.
Ayala Javeski was one of a dozen wererats born to a established clan of wererat Sczarni who dwelled in Riddleport. Infighting and treachery eventually saw the destruction of that clan, with several of the siblings fleeing the city rather than be slaughtered by their kin. Today, the only scion of this clan who still lives in Riddleport is the crimelord Ziphras. Ayala ended up in Magnimar, where she worked for several years as hired muscle for the Wreckwash Blades.
Through a combination of manipulation, seduction, and coercion, she managed to become apprenticed to a local cat burglar who taught her many of the finer points of breaking and entering. She repaid him with a knife to the back, leaving his bleeding corpse in a gutter one moonless night. Since then, Ayala founded her own female-only gang of cat burglars, calling them the Tower Girls.
The Tower Girls have thrived under Ayala’s hard-nosed leadership. But after a failed attempt to seize power from the Wreckwash Blades forced Ayala to flee Dockway and go into hiding for a time in Underbridge, the Tower Girls’ fortunes seemed to be growing shaky. The discovery of the chambers within the Crow represented a great stroke of luck to Ayala, she hopes to use the treasures she has found within to restore her gang’s place in Magnimar’s underworld.
The apparent betrayal of Natalya has left Ayala in a particularly bitter mood, and she’s increasingly turning her plans away from using her newfound resources to restore her gang toward financing a large-scale hunt in Magnimar to track down Natalya and destroy her.
Lexi moves around detecting magic and eventually finds something. One of the walls, has scratch marks on the floor near it like something was opened and closed. Checking she find that there is a secret door.
Inside is a long dead skeleton. a rough estimate is it is at least a few decades old. A search of the bones reveals a masterwork chain shirt, a masterwork rapier, a magical pendant, 50 feet of silk rope, and a leather pouch containing 250 gp.
A pendant of the souk - The wearer of a pendant of the souk gains a +5 competence bonus on Appraise checks. By holding the pendant to her brow, the wearer can gain the effects of an identify spell once per day. Finally, the pendant grows warm in the presence of illusions, granting a +2 insight bonus on saving throws made to disbelieve existing illusion effects.
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Bixby takes great pleasure reading the journal.
"Ah ha!" he exclaims multiple times as he reads.
"It seems we have put these Tower Girls out of commission," he says to himself. "Furthermore, this confirms at least three of my theories."
Opening a new page of his journal, he muses as he writes. "Though this opens up four more conspiracies I shall have to pursue."
Verris looks at Jessela as they put the remaining Tower girls aboard the boat. She cuts their bonds as she does so saying, "Remember what I said. Keep yerself outta trouble!
On the way back to the boat, Gurk loads up a bit more on food from the treasure room. "So longshanks no more shank. We still get shiny and food?"
While Lexi continues her search and Bixby is busy reading journals the rest of the group takes Jessela and collects their other captives along the way to take them back toward the boat, after ensuring they've stripped them of anything of value save their clothes. Verris has to unbind them well before they reach the boat otherwise there is no way they could climb back into the secret passage that leads to the platform suspended over the water and then navigate their way across. They do so with ease and the party has no troubles as well.
Sticking the few remaining memebers of the Tower Girls in two of their boats and letting them depart they don't really acknowledge Verris's words but they don't make and sign of dismissing them either. They row off back toward Magnimar.
"Well, let's hope they hold to their word," Temmer says, though doubt clearly tinges his comment. "In the meantime, let's see if we can figure out another riddle and get through this door."
He heads back and eyes the symbols.
"Another anagram, is it?" he says. "I don't know that I'm the most learned of the bunch, but maybe there are some clues we can find as to the answer?"
He looks around to see if there's anything that might offer some suggestions.
"Also, do we have any magic that can protect us from fire? Perhaps use that on whoever will be touching the runes, so they're not burned."
Cool! Just wanted to offer in case it might improve someone's AC in the meantime.
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Verris nods at Adistan's word. "Hope for the best and plan for the worst, as my old folks say. Let's hope our message gets through to 'em but we'll let the guard know about 'em when we get back, to cover both cases."
"Anybody know what this says?" Verris asks, pointing at the Thassilonian writing on the door.
Lexi can read the symbols and tells the group that the left symbols spell out "SILENT" and the right spells out "THEY SEE".
Verris scratches her head for a moment thinking. She shrugs, as if unsure, then says, "If ye switch the letters for the left side ye can get "LISTEN", which is kinda got to do with SILENT. Ye can't listen unless ye keep silent. As for the right...if ye move the Y in THEY and the S in SEE, ye can mix 'em up to spell "THE EYES" and that kinda makes sense too. Ye can't see without yer eyes...well not normal folk anyway." She blushes a little as she finishes, unsure if her logic is sound, particularly when compared with the intelligence of her comapanions.
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Bixby looks up from the journal as Verris discusses how to bypass the door.
"That--makes sense," he concedes. "But--what do we make of it. Can we move the letters? I don't have any way to protect someone from fire. Perhaps Gurk should continue to do it. He likes fire."
It takes Lexi forever to find the secret door she suspects is nearby. Though disappointed that there's no shard of the Sihedron to claim, she carries the pendant out to the others for further examination. Only then does she realize that Adistan, Verris, and Davor--as well as the Tower Girl captive--are nowhere to be seen. While Gurk does goblin stuff, she compares notes with Bixby, both about the pendant of the souk and the journals the gnome's been perusing.
"Oh dear! I hope the Tower Girls don't continue to hunt for Natalya!" she squeaks in alarm. She also wonders if Bixby would be willing to trade the shard of pride for the nifty pendant she found.
When the others return, Lexi dutifully reports on what she found in the secret chamber; as usual, the weakling has left it in sorted piles for the stronger party members to carry. When Verris asks what the symbols on the door say, Lexi recalls the lessons Lady Heidmarch gave her in ancient Thassilonian and quickly deciphers the symbols/letters. Lady Sheila would be proud of me...and maybe Verris is, too!
In reply to moving the letters without getting burned, the weird aasimar goes into a trance for a few seconds before exclaiming, "Mage hand!" It takes a few more seconds before the bard confesses that she doesn't have that particular spell in her magical repertoire.
"I'm willing to try to move the letters around if there's no other way," she adds quietly. "I'm learned in the ways of magical traps, especially ones that involve symbols and writings. Come to think of it, I may even be able to disarm the trap." Pulling out a pouch of thieves' tools, Lexi stares at the door trap long and hard before trying to neutralize the threat.
Lexi looks at the door but realizes there is no trap, whatever the effect is it is coming from the material that composes the door and not anything else.
"Of course we wouldn't have you do it, Lady Dusk," Temmer objects.
He nods at Verris' suggestions, thinking they make sense, and if no one has any way to prevent him from getting burned -- even heavy gloves, perhaps -- takes it upon himself to suffer the effects as he moves the letters to LISTEN and THE EYES.
"No, I should really be the one to try the code," Lexi says quietly but firmly to Adistan. "We need you to fight if there's something bad behind the doors, and I'm next to useless in a fight."
"Besides, what if Verris's guess is wrong? After all, the solution could be 'These tiny eels'...or maybe 'Teen leshy site.'"
"Heeey...maybe I could bounce my piece of Irespan stone off the letters one at a time! That way, we wouldn't actually be touching the door!"
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"Gurk can burn it down," Gurk says. "Door be very bad. Burn Gurk. And has evil thoughts on it. Burning be best."
Trying to touch the runes with anything other than living flesh has no effect.
Lexi moves up and touches the symbols in order to change the words around to what Verris suggested. As she swaps the last two ruins, just as the paradox box back at the lodge, a seem appears in the metal and the door cracks open with a woosh of stagnant air.
On the other side is a small room. The Thassilonian murals here are as vibrant as if they were painted yesterday. A dusty, cobweb-choked corridor runs northward.
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Bixby watches in wonder as Lexi not only solves the puzzle, but does so while suffering serious burns.
"Are you sure that is worth--" he begins to say, but then his mouth opens as the Thassilonian murals are revealed.
"Well done! We should treat those injuries before we move on. Do we have an extra potion?"
"Well done," Temmer echoes Copperpot, wincing at Lady Dusk's injuries and somewhat frustrated that she wouldn't let him do the proper thing.
He peers into the other room, looking to see if there's any threat such as she was worried about while others tend to her wounds.
Lexi takes the first few burns stoically, but by the time the doors open and her hands are charred like, well, Lexi's cooking, the aasimar finds herself crying.
"Maybe we should rest before delving further?" she asks in a half-whine.
Adistan does not see any immediate threats. With the cobwebs clogging the hall heading north it doesn't appear anything has been this way in some time.
Temmer looks around.
"This might be worth resting, letting Lady Dusk heal," Temmer agrees, "before we go any further in."
Verris opens her mouth to interject and offer to do it when she sees how much Lexi wants to do it, perhaps as a challenge to herself. She closes her mouth and steps back allowing her fellow aasimar to move around the runes, wincing as the woman is pretty badly burned. She gently tries to bandage Lexi's wounds and wipes away her tears, nodding to her in respect as she does so. She's not very familiar with burn wounds though and only does a passingly okay job of it.
Lexi thanks Verris between sniffles for tending to her wounds, and tries to look brave and tough when Bixby and Adistan compliment her actions. Still, she confesses to her fellow aasimar, "That hurt a lot more than I expected." After looking at her bandaged hands, she adds in a whisper, "Why couldn't we be resistant to fire, too?"
With the longshanks deciding to rest after banishing the evil fire door, Gurk sits down and begins to eat a bit of the food stuffed in all his pockets. Gurk must take more from treasure room when Gurk leave this stone hut.