Kahli moves in with Lash. "It looked like he exploded, but that might be his way of teleporting. Or he might have friends here somewhere. Keep scanning for magic in the area and watch for any movement. I'm not certain what kind of fiend that was.... But at least your arrows got him out of here for now."
Hrolf stows his lance and pulling his waveblade, "Probably going to get up close and personal inside like this..." Before Lash can start up the stairs he asks "You or me on point?"
To give Lash a second to consider the question, he casts detect magic again...
5 ranks +3 trained +2 wis
Stepping into the building, the stale air hits your nose. Stepping by the pile of ash that was the greeter, the party files into the foyer. As soon as the last foot is inside, the front door slams shut behind the group, catching Tenney on his back, and encasing the party in darkness.
Now inside, without light, those with darkvision see unlit sconces around the room, a few displaced chairs, and a large portrait on the southern wall (yellow line) that has been smeared with blood to where you can't easily tell who it's of. There are three closed wooden doors around the room. Hamley and Tenney, with no way to magically see in the dark, stay towards the door.
Lash makes her way to the stairs on high alert, and manages to see the hinges hidden under each step. She's seen something like this before and knows the steps would fold away, causing the unlucky victim to fall some great distance. She walks along the outside of the bannister and finds a baluster that is slightly out of place. Lash gives it a pull and nothing happens, but after a gentle twist, she's confident the stairs are now locked in place and safe.
While Lash is disabling the stair trap, Hrolf detects the general residual illusion magic, but also detects a moderate conjuration magic coming from the portrait.
Not seeing any immediate danger Kahli digs in the pack and pulls out the Ioun torch so Hamley and Tenney can see as well. "Be careful. We seem to be locked in for the moment. Check for traps at the doors and under the rug." "Are there any magical auras?"
After spending 20 or so seconds looking around the room, Hrolf answers Kahli's question as best he can: "There's something that was all over the room that's fading away pretty fast, I'd guess that's the residue of whatever was giving us the picture of a ballroom, and that painting on the wall, is definitely radiating something middling strong..."
He continues "Does anyone want a light besides the Ioun Torch?
Also, Lash, check out the door after you're done with the stairs. I figure we want to get that open and wedge it open so we have a line of retreat if we need. If you can't get it open, I may smash it open, unless someone's got a better idea."
"I'm okay being on point to watch out for traps. Just as long as you rush in to help if something charges me!" a stern chuckle comes from her. It has been the only laugh she's emited in a while of any regard.
She moves up to the stairs edge, seeing perfectly well in the darkness. When Kahli illuminates the area for Hrolf and his tiger, she nods and continues the rest of the way up.
"No," she answers the halfling concering his light. "Both Kahli and I can see in the darkness." She will nod however at his suggestion. At his mention of the painting being magical, she considers why exactly a painting would be magical in the first place and just decides to shoot it off its hinge from a distance (60ft or less depending on the area) so it falls to the floor or is damaged significantly by her arrow.
Tenney hesitantly steps farther into the room now that it's lit. "Oh, thanks Kahli. Still not sure I'm too tempted to come into this dump even with the light."
Hrolf points out the magic emanating from the painting and Lash opts to solve the problem with an arrow. The party is slightly taken aback when the arrow disappears through the painting. There's no damage to the painting, just a small water-like ripple that originates from where the arrow hit.
Hrolf is amazed at the arrow disappearing into the painting "The hell!" he exclaims. He shakes himself and tries to get back to business, "Ok, that's an interesting mystery, but first things first: Lash, you, Tenney and Hamley , have a go at getting the outer door open. I'll keep watch, and if you can't do it, we'll change jobs and I'll smash it down. Meanwhile, Kahli, you're the closest thing we've got to an expert at magic - have a look at the painting and try to figure out what's what. Sound like a plan everyone?"
With a small prayer to Cayden , Hrolf will take up his watch:
5 ranks +3 trained +2 wis+1 guidance
Kahli moves slowly over by the "painting". "If I'm our expert on magic we've got problems.... When I prepared my spells last we had someone with us that knew much more so I didn't prepare the Detect Magic orison. I can only test this thing physically and watch what happens. From what we saw of Lash's arrow it's obviously a portal. But to where?"
Hamley turns back to the front door, followed by Tenney with a sigh. Kneeling by the double door, Hamley runs his hand along and around the handle and stares at it with a troubled look.
Open this Spoiler if you hit a DC 25 Perception check:
Kahli steps up to the "painting". Splashing water on it doesn't cause any damage to the canvas, as it simply falls through, causing more ripples on the painting as it does. Poking her quarrel in offers no resistance to any depth she plunges it. In fact, she finds she can move it in any direction without effort. Moving the quarrel up slightly, it draws her attention upward, where the light now allows her to see more detail of person in the portrait. While the face is smeared in blood, she can see the fine details on the clothing, much more fine than would be found on a traditional painting. Something specific catches your eye. Something...you've only seen one person wear...Seer.
After hearing Hamley and Hrolf, she looks over the door and heads there with a nod to the halfling.
Being an expert at opening many doors now, not to mention various mechanisms, she observes and points it out to the others there with her. She tries to understand what it would do if pressed or rotated before doing so. If that is an unknown, she just manipulates the design to be properly aligned.
"What's the verdict, Kahli? Can we ignore the painting? Move past it? Should we try to destroy it? Do you think he's IN the painting? Can we just take it off the wall and set it out of the way until we want to deal with it?"
Hrolf waits patiently while the others study their assorted problems....
"I don't think we're supposed to just ignore or bypass it. If it can be taken down I wonder what effect it would have on the image. Possibly we could turn the painting around?"
Lash will try to turn the painting around and then move past it to the door at the top of the stairs.
Sensing they're not in any current danger, Lash takes her time looking the door over and finds a small misaligned crown. She twists it until it clicks and, simultaneously, there's a click higher up on the door by the handle. With her knowledge, she knows the door it unlocked.
Kahli recommends grabbing the painting and looks around the edges, but finds that the painting is recessed into the wall with no frame to grab. When Lash comes over to grab the painting, her hand goes straight through and into the wall, where her hand lands on a cloth pack.
- A pair of fingerless worked leather gloves that emanate a faint divination aura
- A 10-foot length of mithral chain
- A rolled scroll tied shut with a small bit of twine. The scroll feels heavier than just the paper, as if something is contained inside.
Lash isn't in the habit of putting her hand through extradimensional spaces in a devil's home. If she cannot grasp the painting by its edges on the frame, she doesn't bring her precious hands anywhere close to it. If it doesn't swallow her up or something terrible when she approaches it, she moves past to the doorway.
With it unlocked, she opens it stealthily and peers through. If it is clear, she will continue inside.
Hrolf tears apart one of the chairs for some wood scraps and then opens the unlocked front door. He uses the wood scraps to wedge the door open (jamming them into the open hinge edge), saying "That should give us a clear line of retreat if we need to run..."
Seeing that Lash is clearly moving deeper into the house, as she has requested, he prepares to back her up in case of trouble...
Kahli studies the person in the picture. Then suddenly snaps her fingers. "Pathfinder! My mother's.... traveling companion. Well, the leader of one of the missions. He was a Pathfinder and the Lodge was paying for the mission. He wore...."
She stops as Lash accidentally reaches into the 'painting' and touches a pack. "Wait? If that's an extra-dimensional storage space, maybe" She reaches in, pulling the pack out and trying to reach the person. "He's bloodied but maybe he's alive?"
Kahli continues reaching around in the area through the painting, but after pulling out the bag, she only feels empty space; no walls or floor. It seems impossible, as she's reaching where the mansions' wall should be.
She realizes that this painting is acting like a Bag of Holding. In reaching around in the void, Kahli does manage to find the back of what feels like the painting's frame. She gives it a slight tug and swears the painting moves off the wall a little.
In Kahli's other hand is a small, cobalt blue cloth satchel with gold stitched filigree. A simple buckle clasp holds the bag shut.
- A pair of fingerless worked leather gloves that emanate a faint divination aura With Hrolf's magic detection, Kahli figures them to be Gloves of Reconnaissance
- A 10-foot length of mithral chain
- A rolled scroll tied shut with a small bit of twine. The scroll feels heavier than just the paper, as if something is contained inside.
Hrolf is startled by Kahli's exclamation, and even more by her reaching into the picture and pulling out a pack. "So there's space inside the painting where you can store stuff? That's a neat trick. If you can figure out how to get it off the wall and carry the painting around, it might be a pretty useful method of carrying stuff around..."
"It seems dangerous messing with that," she warns Kahli, considering the place it is found. "Why would this guy know someone you know?"
Disappointed that the guy in the painting wasn't real Kahli recovers the pack and checks out the items in it. The gloves seem very useful but require the person wearing them for a day before they will work. "There's something wrapped up in a scroll here. Not sure what but everybody back off a bit just in case it's dangerous...." Once she has at least 10' distance she sets the scroll on the ground and carefully unwraps whatever is in it.
"I think the picture moved a little when I pulled at the cloth inside of it. But it didn't seem like it was collapsing or anything. It would probably be too big and heavy to carry. If we had a cart and animals to pull it we might could put a mountain of treasure in it."
"I didn't say that I recognized the guy. The Pathfinders are a.... Political organization. They travel around looking for historical artifacts and magical things of interest. Their focus is knowledge. Frequently they are at odds with other groups because people like to keep their secrets. Seer was a Pathfinder, and a mage. He led the team that my mother was with on a long-term expedition. That was when I was conceived. I think I might have been aborted if he hadn't been along. I was certainly an inconvenience, but he saw me as a curiosity. So I suppose I'm also listed in their books of history. The living child of a vampire and a human.... A footnote in history! But, he's not Seer. Just another dead Pathfinder."
You unfurl the scroll and a wand falls out into your hand. Holding the wand in one hand, you read the elegant handwriting:
Hello, Kahli. If you have found this, then I knew your survival skills would bring you here. As you have found, puzzles and deception are this creature's game. I hope this wand will help decipher some of its tricks. Simply point and there's a chance you dispel the magical effects.
Lash looks down to the floor below as they mess with the scroll. Her eyes are on overwatch, making sure nothing comes at them from above the stairs or below.
First he addresses Kahli "Well, leave it for now, but let's not forget that portrait when we leave - it's not to big to carry around, no bigger than a good sized shield..."
then he turns to Lash "Don't get too far ahead of us - we don't want to get split up..."
and finally, "Hamley, Tenney, you can stay outside if you think that's a better idea, but if not, stay close to Kahli, after all she has the light"
Kahli reas the note, then takes another long, careful look at the painting. "No! That can't actually be Seer!?! That was years ago.... He was always interested in seeking out strange stuff for the Pathfinder guild, but. ??" She shows the wand to the others, explaining what was detected. "It could be useful!"
She reaches back into the portrait trying to touch the picture of Seer and rub against the spots that were bloodied. Once it is obvious that the blood was added after the painting was made she shrugs. "Just don't understand the point!"