"I'm not sure where I'm from originally," Jetsam begins slowly. "I was found along the shoreline north of here by a returning expedition of the Seekers; apparently a ship on which I'd been traveling wrecked and I managed to somehow make it to shore, barely alive. I'd taken a hard blow to the head and have suffered amnesia ever since."
"The Seekers took me in and even taught me how to fight with this unusual blade--a falcata. I'm a warrior now, regardless of whatever life I might've had before...." The young woman puts her hands on her temples and then shakes her head before returning to normal, though there's a faraway look in her eyes.
"I came to the city to test myself and my skills in the arena." Aliyah says with a flourish.
Nathrae looks down.
"...the details are not important. Suffice to say, I was at my lowest when the Ruby Sorceress found me--and I became her agent."
”Oh, I’ve been in Sasserine most my life now,” Nassor replies. ”Sailed here from The Bountiful Place across the Pearl Sea — you call it Hepmonaland. Came over on one of the Scarlet ships — this was before the Brotherhood showed their true heart, of course,” he adds, his eyes darkening.
"I'm a local girl, always been nosy so I turned it into my job." Lily says with a cheerful grin.
Jetsam claps Lily on the shoulder. "Thanks again for sticking your nose into my business when I was injured. I haven't forgotten that I owe you a healing potion. Once we get paid, that's my first business. I always pay off my debts."
The young woman's eyes go unfocused as she says those final words, like her mind has drifted elsewhere, possibly to an old memory....
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the group takes a ferry over to Castle Teraknian. They spend little time in the castle itself, stopping only to speak to a clerk who verifies Lavinia’s identity and her signet, and who then escorts them down a spiral staircase into a large circular chamber under the castle.
The short passageway ends at a solid-looking iron door. The portal is emblazoned with a simple rune—an eight-pointed star. Above the door, inscribed in flowing script on a polished silver plaque, is the name “Vanderboren.” A single handle protrudes from the door, just below a circular depression bearing the mark of the Vanderboren signet.
The iron door is arcane locked (caster level 15th) until a properly ensorcelled signet ring is inserted into the small depression above the handle by a Vanderboren. At this point, the door flashes once with blue light, then slowly swings open on creaking hinges. The door remains open until it is closed manually, at which point it locks automatically to the outside. A creature on the inside may push the door open again with ease, even without the signet ring or the proper bloodline.
Lavinia doesn’t quite recognize the eight-pointed star symbol, although she does admit it seems familiar. A DC 15 Knowledge (local).
Jet seems very preoccupied and barely glances at the symbol.
Lily studies the symbol thoughtfully as she walks behind Lady Lavinia. mainly silent unless spoken to.
Tedros hangs towards the back of the group as they descend below the castle. It's as different from his typical environs as he could imagine. When they get through the magical door, he certainly tests it to verify that it can be pushed open from the inside.
He strokes Dejen's head to comfort the creature.
Aliyah follows along, taking in the details of the castle with wide-eyed wonder, nodding to herself at the wisdom of setting the ring as the key to the magical lock.
Nathrae wrinkles her nose and keeps her eyes on the road ahead.
Nassor chats amiably on the ride over, but grows quieter amid the opulence of the palace and the vaults. He's still worried they'll find a basilisk or some similar monster inside.
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[dice=Knowledge Local] 1d20 + 7;
Lily studies the symbol thoughtfully as she walks behind Lady Lavinia. mainly silent unless spoken to.
The same star symbol appears on the sign of a building on the western edge of the Merchant’s District. This building is the Seeker’s Lodge, the regional base of a world-spanning group of adventurers and treasure hunters known as the Seekers.
Tedros looks about.
Is this the vault proper? Should we be attacked by a guardian at any point now?
Lily speaks politely to Lady Lavinia, "The symbol on the door is that of the Seekers. A famous order. Does your family have a connection to them?"
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This octagonal room is supported by a single large pillar with dozens of deep grooves along its sides. The seven walls of this room each bear fantastically detailed bas-relief carvings of exotic monsters in threatening poses. Starting at the wall immediately to the west of the entrance to the room and moving clockwise, the carvings depict a ten-tacled monster with a glaring red eye and a mouth full of teeth, a looming dragon, a fish-like creature with three eyes and four tentacles, a two-headed giant wielding a pair of immense clubs, a spherical creature with four eyestalks and a bulging central eye over a drooling maw, a gorilla-like beast with a fanged maw and six eyes, and finally, a towering black spider with seven eyes.
Each monster’s eyes consist of a glittering red stone. The ceiling above is eleven feet high, with the now-familiar eight-pointed star pattern radiating out from the grooved pillar. The arms of this star are black, save for the one pointing south toward the entrance, which is red.
The creatures depicted (in the order described above) are a roper, a red dragon, an aboleth, an ettin, a spectator beholderkin, a gray render, and a monstrous spider.-
Jet comes out of her deep reverie with a shake of her head. "Yes--definitely the Seekers' symbol. I actually was combat trained by one of their masters and still perform the occasional odd job at the lodge--mostly cleaning...and cooking, if they're desperate."
Tedros thinks on whether he knows anything about the depicted creatures. His people have many stories about fantastical creatures and mythical beasts, even beyond the dinosaurs they share the land with.
Lily looks at the carvings closely.
He'd been worried to see a basilisk — that's not depicted, but these creatures aren't much better. Sailors told foul tales about the Aboleths.
Nathrae's eyes glance about.
Aliyah takes in the awe-inspiring artwork and design of the Seeker’s Lodge, wondering about the significance of the legendary creatures.
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Nathrae and Aliyah... you both hear a faint imperceptible clicking sound followed by the most imperceptibel of scrapes sounds like a portcullis but way way smaller.
Lilly you hear the noise as well but it remains secondary as you notice the grooves in the base of the pillar... the gap just enough to suggest or as you suspect that the pillar itself can be rotated....
[i[Tedros [/i] the eyes... you glimpse into nature.. despite not knowing exactly what the creatuers are you notice.. the all have a different amount of eyes.
Nassor and Jetsam... almost at teh same time you notice on of the edges of the pilar is .... darker. pbviously so.. clearly on purpose...
They all have different numbers of eyes?
He looks around at the party.
Do your gods have different numbers of eyes?
"The pillar can be rotated?" Lily says thoughtfully, looking around the chamber carefully to see what would the purpose be for rotating it?
"Hmm.... Number of eyes...," Jet murmurs, mainly to Tedros. "Didn't we find a scrap of paper saying 'This thing looks west, this one looks east, this beastie looks west'...? Maybe those are a clue...or instructions."
Looking at the exotic caged animals currently slowly settling down as the fires were contained, it would seem that the folks whom had taken the ship were storing what appeared to be a smuggling operation of rare animals.
A lot of those parots alone would go for 8 to 10 gold in the markets.
You discover a large trunk in the captains cabin that contains 100 platinum peices, the missing payment Lavinia paid to have her ship returned, and long with a signet ring with a peice of paper rolled up into it in a hidden compartment in the room.it reads.
Chimera looks to sunrise,
Cyclops looks to sunset,
Medusa looks to sunrise,
Umberhulk looks to sunset
Basilisk looks to sunrise.
Tedros tries to match up the depictions of many-eyed creatures they're seeing now to the beasts in that riddle (and are they looking East vs. West as indicated?)
"The creatures do not match those on the paper though?"
Lily studies the pillars. If she turns them does it reveal a different creature? She reaches out and tries turning the Roper.
Lily thinks it over and starts turning the statues so that the eyes are facing the stated directions. She feels somehow this will work. :)
.
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you gather the pillar is the "arrow" that would point to a combination and using the clues of eyes being numbers you gather with your investigator training that the to sunset and to sunrise point to turning the pillar to the left or right. so... a combo lock. and with your check you discern the combanation.
A shudder occurs to the west and she walls simply drops. the first thing you all notice is a large almost 3 foot long metal snake that was large enought to wrap itself about a man.... its not moving.
Secretly patting herself on the back Lily looks at the metal snake cautiously.
.
"A Guardian of some sort?" She reasons, thinking that vaults often have guards of some type.
Tedros nods.
It must be the guardian. On your guard!
He draws his scimitar.
Nassor's eyes widen at the opening of the vault, but steps back a half-pace at the sight of the metal snake. He readies his spear.
"Is it alive?
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the giant iron construct looked almost like a cobra and it remained unmoving. Lavinia not entirely sure what the thing was slowly approached it holding aloft the signet ring just in case. It didnt move... when she got closer to it she huffed.
"It appears broken... thats not a comforting sign."
She began turning for the last of the vaults doors. She opened it and with one gaze in the room just let out a big oomph of air. when the party apprached and could see inside they could see a dopzen chests.. all open several tipped over almost compltely empty. some coins lays scatterd abotu the flooring but the treasure supposed to be inside the vault was clearly missing...
Lily examines the chests to see if she can detect the marks of lockpicking, or if the chest were opened with a key?
Nathrae pointedly draws her gladius.
"...I heard something scraping earlier. Be on guard."
"Wait--is the signet ring a sort of key to open the vault?" Jet asks Lavinia. "Is there a second ring somewhere that may have been used to access this place?"
Perhaps she didn't lose it, but rather it was stolen. Tedros suggests.
"Whoever did this did not have the key!" Lily tells Lady Lavinia, she points out the scratches and scuff marks on the locks. "It looks as if someone opened the vault, disabled the guardian and picked the locks to get what they wanted?"
"Was there anything kept here besides coinage?" She asks.