"Magic book?" Intrigued
"So long as the rest of us don't go up with them, that should work," Kiley says. "I think it'd be best if you hung back with Sasha and Rutilux. Shaggar and I can lead your boys in and they can come in right behind us to get to the sides or behind the enemy. Ari will follow them. Does that work for everyone," she asks.
Ari taps a finger to her forehead in a brief salute of acknowledgement to show that she's happy with Kiley's plan.
Magic book?
The goblin nods in excitement before bringing it out: a hand-sized book that carries multiple bite marks and looks like it’s been sitting in a bog for a month. Perhaps it has, on second thought. ”I use it to cast my magic spells! Boom!” the goblin exclaims, doing a little dance and waving his staff around all mystically-like.
Does that work for everyone?" she asks
The goblin chieftain nods again, the various necklaces (made of bones and feathers mostly) he wears rattling as he shakes his head enthusiastically. ”Yes yes yes, let’s go! Get a move on, we have wolves to burn!”
With that, he follows the group into the piano room.
"Nice to have" At the book. Goblin wizards. I fear for the realms.
At the suggestion of battle plans by Kiley he nods.
"Right, Now let's see if we can get through here without giving everyone below a warning," Kiley says, hoping that Gix and the other goblins will catch on and keep their voices down.
Rather than randomly pressing keys, Shaggar examines the piano, looking at the guts of it for some sign of which keys and pedals might trigger it.
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Sasha tries to hide her chagrin at the goblins and how they are "joining"
the party, keeping to the back and watching the little cretins spread out amongst the party. Should any come too close to her she asks for space, saying, "I need room to cast my spells or shoot the crossbow."
At the piano she looks about curiously for where a door could be. She looks at Gix and asks, "Have you seen the door open? Where is it?"
"Have you seen the door open? Where is it?"
"They've never let us in here, no no. I don't know where the door is." he says, shaking both his head and staff in frustration.
I think Kiley's about to eat another trap.
Luckily for Kiley, she doesn't trigger any new and painful traps. Her misstep is not without consequences, however, as a loud tonal sound accompanied by a worrying but ultimately harmless jolt of arcane energy does spark at Kiley's hand.
The goblins jump back in terror at the sound and flash of light, but Gix is enamored and giggles quietly. "Pretty lights! Did it hurt?"
"No, but I fear that the werewolves probably know we are here."
Ari sighs at the noise the piano emits, but at least it didn't seem to cause Kiley any immediate harm. She saunters over to the piano and makes a show of sitting down at the stool and flexing her fingers as if she is about to play - which, she supposes she is, just not in the way the instrument's maker intended.
"Show me what you did," she says to Kiley, peering at the piano and picking up the tools. The tiefling starts to work, teasing a long wire into a small gap at the back of a pair of ivory keys. There's something that looks like it might be a catch there but she is unable to manoeuvre the wire to get it. She selects a different tool and tries again but with similarly disappointing results.
Unfortunately, Ari doesn’t have much luck tinkering with the piano either. The same tonal sound echoes through the room, except this time the accompanying shock is much stronger and the sound is louder as well.
Even as the sound and flash of light go off again, Ari catches a glimpse of the mural of the moon cycle across the room. The runes inscribed on the wall glow a little brighter than they should in the magical flare, hinting at there being more to it than first expected. She’d have to get closer to investigate, though.
Kiley points out what she did to Ari as asked.
"Ow! Bane's black hand!" Ari curses as the piano jolts some kind of magical force into her. "I can assure you that one did hurt. Someone really doesn't want anyone messing with the piano," she says ruefully. "I do wonder if we're looking in the wrong place though." She points at the mural. "Those runes lit up when that thing zapped me. I don't suppose anyone can read them?" She rises and goes over to inspect them more closely. "I assume that this matches Selûne's path through the sky?" she asks, nodding at the moon's cycle.
Rutlilux ahems... "I read Common, elven, and of course, halfling. Sorcerer here- unlike wizards, arcane literacy is not a requirement." A bit sheepishly "you might want to ask the goblin with the book."
Ari takes a look at the runes, and knows enough about the language they use to determine it is Celestial, but not what they say.
Gix, who had begun to slowly edge his way towards the fireplace, jerks upright at the mention of his name. ”Eh? Oh yeah I can take a look.”
”Yeah, this is dat angel language, all fancy like.” he says, tracing his knobby finger along the curves and elegant styles of the runes. ”Let’s see…they’re just letters, not words. C, D, C, E, C, F, C.” he reads out, looking around confused. ”That doesn’t make a word, does it?”
”It does not,” Ari replies. ”But I think they are probably musical notes. Obviously I could play them but I’m more than happy to let someone else have a go. I don’t want to show you all up.” She tosses her hair in the manner she usually does when she takes on Aamina’s persona. ”I could have been a bard, you know, darlings.”
"Those are notes," Kiley says before softly singing the short sequence. "Do you think you could play that," she asks Ari. "I never learned how to play the piano."
”Nah, you’ve got this.” Ari slaps Kiley lightly on the back. ”Just find the first note and then you can work out the rest from there.”
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"I'm no Olive Ruskettle, never did practice at it." He says, naming the most famous of Halfling bards with a kind of wistful nostalgia and admiration
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Kiley is adept enough at musical theory to understand which keys are which, and after singing the notes she is confident enough to play the tone on the piano. A bright silver flash of light explodes from the piano, but this time there is no accompanying shock of holy energy. A loud grinding sound comes over from the fireplace as it slides away from where it is into the wall, revealing a set of marble stairs leading down into the darkness.
A quick frown flies across Gix’s face as the fireplace disappears, and he drops whatever wood he had gathered while you dealt with the piano puzzle.
"Sorry, Gix," Kiley apologies, "but look at this way, you're that much closer to setting some werewolves on fire."
She looks to Shaggar and nods to let him know she's ready after she pulls out her greatsword.
"Ah, so that's what they mean by the term 'GRAND Staircase'" Rutilux smiles with no regrets for the pun.
Ari grins back at Rutilux's wordplay. "Glad you're keeping it light because nobody has ever revealed a secret staircase that leads down to who knows where that bodes well." She checks her many hidden blades, drawing the two most suitable for the task ahead and signalling that she's good to go.
The gnoll proceeds down the stairs into the waiting darkness...