As Victor finds the strange device, Septis quickly discovers that it fits perfectly on the cristal ball-like magic item inside the cabinet. A few magical lines crisscross the entire globe before it settles and starts to emit a lot of light. Inside the globe, Septis can see a vague image of piles of what appears to be boxes and crates, but there is so much light coming from the object that he feels as if he is trying to gaze directly into a flame, causing his eyes to become dazzled.
Before he is forced to close his eyes and retreat from the magic item, he has the impression of recognizing the pile of crates: they are the piles from the storage room...
Victor relates what he saw to the others "There is something we aren't seeing in the supply room, but it's hard to make it out, looking into the crystal ball is so bright I can't really see what I am looking at. I don't know if there is something wrong with this thing or maybe we aren't doing something right but if it wasn't so bright I might be able to see what this thing is trying to show us..."
Thinking about the functioning of the device, Septis recalls some knowledge about general divination devices.
He remembers that effects that allow someone to see another place through magic is called scrying and usually such effects do not create light on their own, relying on the visual capabilities of the own caster, so if someone was scrying into a dark cave, if this person had not some means to see in the dark, he would see nothing. Applying this thought to the current device, Septis believes that if the device was to function correctly, he should be able to see perfectly through it considering the storage room is well illuminated.
To his knowledge, you are not doing anything wrong with the device, so perhaps it is indeed faulty, and the most probable possibilities are that the device is somehow enhancing the light level of the place it is scrying, making the room too bright to be properly studied, or its magic is in conflict with the magic illuminating the rooms.
After running through the magic in his head he finally notes to the others "Someone turn of the lights in the storage room, maybe that will help."
Lillian nods and moves back to turn off the lights. When she does so she calls out
Sif let's Lillian serve Septis, smirking at the reversal of roles. She stays quiet as she watches them work at solving the riddle of this place.
As Septis instructed, Lillian moves to the Lord's Chamber and touches the glass panel, which causes both the lights from the Social Room (where the crystal ball is located) and the Storage Chamber. When she does so, the narrow magic lines that were glowing around crystal ball also disappear and Septis sees nothing through it.
After some brief discussion about the fact that Septis ask for the lights only on the storage chamber to be turned off, and the fact that the devices were not functioning well enough, Lillian touches the glass panel in the storage chamber, which causes the lights from the Servant's Quarters to be turned off and the lights on the Social Room to be turned on once again. With this, the magical lines around the device reappear and Septis is happy to see that his guess was correct, for now he was able to see the Storage Quarter even without a source of light.
The device doesn't allow Septis to change the point of view from the room, focusing only on the fresco painted on the southern wall and once he examines the painting more carefully, he notices a small magical aura glowing from the right front leg of the horse General Galitian Maramaxus is riding in the battle.
Seeing something stand out now, Septis lets go of the crystal ball and goes into the storage room, looking for that particular part of the painting as he notes to the others "I think there is something here, maybe it will help us to escape. Help me see if we can figure out what it is."
He will help search the area of the painting indicated in the crystal ball as well as detect magic.
Victor joins in the search as well.
Septis, Sif and Victor join Lillian in the now dark storage room and try to search for something, even if they can't find anything of use: no pressure button, no hole or indentation... it appears to simply be a piece of normal wall.
Even when they light to room once more, the result of the search is the same.
Septis tries pushing on the wall in the spot that was highlighted from the crystal ball, checking to see if it did anything. If that doesn't work he will ask the others "Anyone have a crowbar or something? Maybe there is something behind this spot or something?"
"Wait a minute, I think learned something about this General. Hold on, give me a moment." she says as she takes a seat, thinking back on her lessons.
As she thinks more about the general, Lillian recalls some dark rumors about him despite being a respected and decorated general. These rumors paint him as a misogynist man who had no respect to female soldiers and officers, seeing women as merely vessels and sexual objects. Other rumors tell about how a couple female officers coming home pregnant and claiming to bear his child and soon disappeared afterwards. As she recalls this information, she also notices that in the fresco there is no female soldier anywhere.
Nowadays, the Maramaxus family is considered a minor house deeply associated with the military body of Taldor, even if none of those enlisted have achieved anything noteworthy.
She doesn't recall anything special about the general's horse, nor its leg.
As you think about a solution to get out of these rooms, Liloria comes from the room with the crystal device, stopping at the door. "Hey master... when you left the room, I looked at that strange device and as soon as some of you touched the horse's leg, the glow changed to that big dwarf's warhammer..."
Septis quirks his brow as he grins "Oh? Wonderful! Lil go and keep looking at the orb and call out if it changes again."
Septis moves toward the dwarf's warhammer and waits a bit for Lil to get into position. He then touches the hammer where she noted and waits to see if Lil calls out any changes. If she does, he will proceed to touch the next spot Lil calls out until there are no longer any places to touch.
"Nice! That's got to be the key to this puzzle, right?"
Victor follows along quietly, helping where he can. But truth be told, it’s obvious his attention is primarily on keeping the two bickering women apart.
Liloria does as Septis says, noticing that the device was too bright again, certainly caused by the light in the storage chamber to be on. After the light is turned down, Liliria notices that the aura of light have changed again, now targeting the general's banner and she communicates this to the rest of the group.
With the lights out, if falls to Sif to find the correct spot, which causes the aura of light to change again... to a hog in the background, then to a random soldier being impaled by a spear and so on. Once the sixth spot is touched, the fresco splits open, revealing a hidden compartment beyond. A small bag lies inside the niche, holding 20 visibly magically charged coins, each bearing the Voritas family crest.
Upon seeing these coins, you recall seeing a coin shaped hole in one of the walls on the Senator's Chamber.
Finally finding the stash Septis exclaims "Ha! Now we are getting somewhere..."
He looks over the coins senseing their magic and tries to discern their use.
After a moment he notes "These magically infused coins are some sort of foci for a conjuration effect. We found that coin shaped hole in the one chamber. Maybe if we insert a coin it will provide a means for us to escape?"
He moves into the room bringing the bag of coins with and calls Lil in. Handing her a coin he indicates to the slot and smiles "Give it a try?"
Lil rolls her eyes and shrugs inserting the coin, waiting to see what happens.
Sif nods along, agreeing with Septis' plan. She too watches as Liloria inserts the coin. "Hope this works, this place is starting to give me the creeps."
"Why would they teleport us here to solve a puzzle?" Lillian asks as they walk back to the supposed coin hole.
Looking to Sif she nods "This place is creepy. Hopefully we're not too far like you think and get back in time to help." she says, still holding on hope they aren't nations away.
Septis shrugs "That's a good question. I mean... maybe it is some defensive mechanism or something, if someone got teleported down here that wasn't supposed to be and didn't know how to get out? I don't know. Either way, with as long as it has taken us just to get this figured out I don't know that there is much left for us to do even if we get back to the senate."
"Or it's a test, to see if we're smart enough to be worth saving. This certainly feels like some kind of test to me."
As soon as Liloria inserts the coin in the socket in the wall, a translucent purple oval portal with shimmering and undulating edges appear on the center of the room, revealing a torch-lite corridor beyond it. After just a couple seconds it starts to flicker slightly, giving signs that it will last for only a couple other seconds before vanishing!
Afraid of losing the chance, you all quickly jump through the open portal. From where you land, you can see a set of stairs descending into a briefly lowered hall, before a second set of stairs rises to the north. The northern end of this hall ends with an elaborated brass lever. A single hooded lantern that rests on the ground and flickers with a blue light illuminates the hall and allows this view.
Lillian is briefly excited only to frown shortly thereafter. "Where are we now I wonder? she says, looking around. Pointing at the lantern she looks at Lil, "Why don't you hold that so the rest of us can see."
"Hmmpf. More tricks. Up or down?"
Septis looks at the lamp, knowing it is magical but not sure what its purpose is, he goes to pick it up. When Lillian suggests Lil should carry it Septis shakes his head. "I'll carry it for now. If there is anything down here other than empty rooms, I would prefer Lil be ready for a fight."
He will stay in the middle of the pack to ensure he illuminates the way ahead and behind, while Lil moves up to the front looking for continued means of egress.
Lil just grins and sticks her tongue out at Lillian before moving ahead.
Looking around and suspicious of more trips (and even traps), you descend the stairs into the lowered hall and then climb those leading to the north, finding nothing more besides the brass lever.
Lillian examines the lever and upon finding no danger in it, she decides to pull it, which causes a well concealed secret door to open into a somewhat long hallway. Once Septis enters the hallway and the discovered lamp illuminates the room, you notice chiseled stone statues of Taldan Phalanx soldiers standing atop plinths in the corners. From where you stand, you can see five wooden doors: one to the north, two to the south and one each to west and east. The ends of the hallway turn north.
On the western side of the hallway, you see a fresh corpse sprawled across the floor, torn into pieces. Even from this distance, you can see the remnants of a ruined noble's clothes on the corpse...
Septis sees the body and remains focused on it as he looks to the others "Uh that looks reasonably fresh, seems we are not the only ones down here."
Lil nods to her masters words and moves over to get a closer look at the body.
Lillian also looks around and examines the body for any signs of who it might be and how they died as well as looking for other signs of trouble in the room.
"Careful. If he is recently deceased, trouble is nearby. Be on your guard!"
Victor readies his blade and wishes he had his shield with him. He takes a position at the front and says ”Everyone stay behind me.”
Sif hums a little tune to herself, running her hand over her face. There is a momentary magical flash of light around her eyes, ears and nose.
Neither of you recognizes the nobleman dead and inspecting the body reveals no footprints that could pertain to a monster, even if Lillian notices the nobleman might have been killed by some sort of creature, since there are obvious claw marks on the body.
Lillian, who was close to the body, and Victor, who stayed behind watching for signs of danger, notice a ripple in the wall and to their surprise it undulates slightly before an arm forms from the very bricks of the wall! The clawed arm extends and soon is followed by a head, body and another arm of a humanoid shape made of bricks, with semi facial features but lacking eyes, mouth, and ears.
The creatures moves its head around with clearly murderous intent!
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Surprise Round:
Victor moves to attack the thing, but seeing the earth itself take human form throws him off and causes his attack to be poorly placed!
"What the-" Lillian screams as something comes out of the wall. "The walls are attacking us now?! Victor, get on the other side of it."
As Lillian moves to flank the half-emerged creature from the wall, she manages to pierce its flesh with her dagger, however she doesn't feel like hitting something made of stone at all... it appears to be just flesh. Really though flesh, of course, but not stone for sure. The creature doesn't appear to feel the pain and there is no blood lost with the attack, but the damage is clearly there.
The creature turns to Lillian and whispers in a dry and old voice before attacking. "You shall die like we did... trapped... forgotten... lost..."
It then claws Lillian but even if is fast enough to break her guard, her leather armor blocks its claws. It strikes again, infuriated, but this time Lillian dodges his attack!
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Round 1
”Face me, you abomination!” Victor calls out before bringing the heavy end of his blade down on its back!
Septis backs up away from the creature and gives it a good look before he conjures some acid to fling at it.
More importantly he calls to Lil "Go help them dispatch that thing!"
Liloria grins wickedly as she replies "Gladly..." and steps up to the creature.
Sif starts roaring. "C'mon show 'em piss and fire!"
She then flees behind the others, leaving the now magically enraged Victor to face their foe.
Victor manages to strike the creature's back with a powerful swing of his sword, expertly aimed, wounding it terribly and causing it to turn its head towards him. As it does this, Liloria slashes its face with her. With a strange sound which could be described as a mixture between anger and relief, the creature appears to be pulled back to the wall.
A couple seconds later, however, the creature appears once more (or was it another creature?) now behind Victor, even if not exactly adjacent to him. It then swings both at Victor and at Septis, apparently ignoring the fact that both of them are being its reach... even if mid-swing the creature's claws elongate. The creature hits Victor's armor but Septis, unprotected by any sort of armor, is harmed .
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Round 2 Lillian > Victor > Septis > Sif > Liloria > monster
Victor wheels around and slashes at the thing again with his blade.
Septis holds onto his fresh wounds a frown on his face as he steps back through the secret door they had just came through and left open and calls out "LIL!"
He lobs some more acid toward the creature.