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Mird: None at all. Good thinking to check to see if it went invisible (thus the footprints as it got up and walked off of the grease) but no, absolutely nothing. Thantos: Again, great idea. All of the feathers float happily to the ground without the slightest impediment to land softly in the grease on the floor.
Armand and Dirk both draw weapons but due to the blocked doorway, simply remain at the ready waiting for an opening. Thantos snaps off a quick spell, conjuring a slippery Grease on the ground under the creature.
With a screech the creature slips on the slick floor and falls onto the floor with a crunch as it goes down hard. Taking the fall as a queue Lash stabs forward with her rapier, skewering the creature's left shoulder as it collapses to the ground. Selena finishes her chant and the golden fire arua around her hand expands a soft light to encompass each of you, causing you to each glow slightly for a half second before it fades. Everyone feels slightly more alert and as if their attacks are being guided by an outside entity. Mird swings his longsword, slicing into the creature's upraised left arm as it tries to regain it's footing.
Bellowing another scream that shakes you each to your bones the creature simply disappears. One moment it is on it's side in the grease on the floor struggling to get up, the next moment it is no longer there.
Realizing you are facing another of those monsters you found on Floor 2, you cautiously exit the guest chamber you are in and carry on down the hallway counter clockwise to the next room. The doorway is closed but not locked (as with most of the doors in the tower) and every indication is that you are getting ready to enter another guest room (the doors on the previous 2 rooms are identical and unmarked). Lash performs her normal checks and clears the door to open while Dirk, sword at the ready enters the room and Mird (at the back) watches down the hallway toward the room the creature disappeared into. The room is empty and identical to the last two you entered. It doesn't look like anyone has stayed in this guest room for quite some time and nothing about it looks out of place.
DM Only:
Mird:
The hallway back toward where you entered the floor is clear, and there is no movement in the gloom. As the last of your companions enters the next room to search it, you turn to join them and immediately get a prickling sensation up your back as you feel another presence behind you. A creek from behind warns you and you execute as quick a dodge as you can. You turn as a huge jaw and set of teeth snap in your direction.
Initiative and Actions in Please.
*MUTTER* F'ing system just lost my post on top of the rest of it. *sigh* No attacks of opportunity: The creature used a full round disengage during it's initiative to disengage properly from combat and move back to it's full allotment of move...which takes it back into room 5.2. For those who have actions left in the round (Selena and Thantos) if you wish to chase down the creature keep the following in mind: * Both of you are 35 feet away from entering the room. The 30' mark places you just outside the doorway to room 5.2. * Entering the room will require a double move action for the round (thus a full round move action). I haven't looked at the other combat options to see if you could move more than your standard move action and still attack (such as charge) but I don't believe you'd be able to spell cast in any of these cases. * One of you can choose to move to the square just outside of the room, this will provide you visibility of the back 3 squares of the room, plus the square just inside the doorway. The squares to the left and right of the door, however, would not be within your line of sight. * Only one of you could choose to move to this position, the other either would need to stay out in the hallway, or move into the room. Please let me know if either of you wants to pursue the creature into 5.2.
Almost instantaneously, an arrow goes whizzing by Lash and Dirk's head to thunk solidly into the shoulder of the beast creature knocking it farther back from the door through the shear force of the strike. Following quickly on the shot's heels, Dirk chops at the creature with his sword, the transferred kinetic energy of the shot working in Dirk's favor as the monster is pushed into Dirk's slice, which cuts into the creatures tough hide on it's right side. Lash also is able to capitalize on the off balance creature with a retaliatory strike of her own, stabbing the creature through the left side with her blade. The beast screeches in anger and steps back from your reach, turning and sprinting down the hallway and through an open door into the last room you came from.
Knowledge:Planes(25):
FAMILIAR! A piece of the legend starts to come back to you. Perhaps it's the shock of the attack or the fact that this creature looks close but not identical to the last one you encountered, but the sudden appearance of this creature triggers a memory in your mind. The debunked theory of a world between mirrors had another legend that you had wholly discounted up to this point: those of creatures that were able to travel and transport themselves into and out of this world-between-the-mirrors. You remember very little about the legend since your teachers at the academy had long since decided that mirrors were just that, mirrors. However, one class period comes back to you as you remember an impromptu lecture by one of your more sarcastic teachers. You remember, clearly now, a student asking the master about this theory of a world between the mirrors. You clearly remember, as if it was yesterday, the sneering look the master gave as he sarcastically explained that the theory had been debunked and only morons would believe of a world, disconnected from either the ethereal or astral planes, that was accessible from mirrors. The theory, he stated, made no sense of a nether or demi-plane directly connected to the Prime Material plane and not to either the ethereal or astral planes...that simply couldn't happen. And furthermore, he ensured the class at the expense of your colleague, even if there was a dimension such as this, it would be impossible for a creature, such as those mentioned in the legends, to travel between these areas of existence. Magical theory simply had not proven the existence of any of this, and if it had not been found by now, he firmly stated, it was not possible. You remember the student being adamant, before being thrown out of the classroom (a not uncommon occurrence for this instructor), that there were such things as creatures that could transport themselves into, out of, and among mirrors through a pocket dimension. Until now, it seemed pretty farcical to you. Now, however, it would help explain how a creature so large could manage to follow and track your movements through this tower so easily as to setup an ambush like this. Unfortunately, you never gave much credence to the theory so you know very little more about what this might be than the short argument that sprung up in class so many years ago.
I'll give Thantos an ability to act here and post back with round 1 on Monday.
Note: The doorway is pretty much blocked up with Dirk. One other (I would assume Lash at this point since she's normally second in line) would have a clear to melee ability on the creature, but the rest of you will need to move for line of site, then it's ranged attacks only (with the standard penalties and possibilities to hit other party members). You cannot move past the door and out into the hall without suffering an attack of opportunity without using the disengage action.
Finding nothing within the second guest bedroom you've searched, you all finish what you were doing, putting things mostly back in place, as Dirk proceeds out the doorway followed by the rest of you. A flash of movement to the left of the door catches your attention as a huge black furred creature pounces on Dirk, it's jaws gaping wide!
Dirk spins and throws himself up against the right side of the doorjam just in time to dodge the huge jaws clamping down on his head. A grating screech sounds as one of the creature's huge teeth scrapes along one of the metal plates of Dirk's armor while you also hear the wood of the doorjam crack and splinter in response to Dirk's 200+ lb form slamming with full force up against it.
To Recap: We are in room 5.3 on the map at [url]http://www.wowraidmanager.net/ROAR/players_map_tower.jpg[/url]. As you'll remember you are currently wanted by the duchy for the "murder" of BOTH commanders of Kirin's keep...one of which (Armand) is still very much alive. Your current goal is to make your way to Speclarium, obtain an audience with Duke Stephan, and clear your names. Your other goal for seeking the Duke's help is, after the mysterious disappearance of the vast majority of the keep's standing army while hunting orcs, you need to get the Duke to commit forces to ridding Kirin's Keep of the current occupying force: A grouping of mercenary soldiers of obvious Ill repute and intent. Part of the reason for the loss of Kirin's keep and your flight from the authorities is the fact that the other previous commander of the keep turned out to be a member of the dark brotherhood, an organization of assassins that, among other things, overthrew the kingdom of Kethlenica, where you're all from, and ousted Prince Armand. It's possible that the mercenary leader is also from the same group, meaning the southern part of the Duchy is in the grasp of the brotherhood. At this point, you are on the fifth and final floor of an "abandoned" tower (though it doesn't look like it's been abandoned for long), that you found while trying to escape persuit from the Duchy authorities and shelter from a massive spring snowstorm. You are currently scouring the tower looking for anything harmful to a good night's rest while you wait out the snowstorm that's preventing you from continuing your travels. While exploring the tower, you encountered a wierd demon like baboon that was able to move within the tower with alarming ease, avoiding most detection, but managed to kill it. The rest of the tower, other than some random monsterous denizens, has been mostly quiet. Strange pieces of mirrored glass have been placed all over the keep (every room you've been in so far), way too much of it to have come from within the keep itself. All of the glass so far has registered as slightly magical and of unknown origin or magical type...the mirror glass being of a strange origin. The glass isn't just mirrored on one or two sides, the ENTIRE piece of glass is mirrored (corners, edges, surfaces, all of it) indicating that the glass / shards are reflective all the way through the material...an oddity none of you have ever seen before. You've also found evidence of the keep's former owners (a Mage lady by the name of Halia and her Warrior Husband Retameron) who were former adventurers and, most recently, seem to have stumbled upon the trail of a local criminal by the name of Skarda (also known in the local area as Malek), one who has supposedly been able to raid entire villages of people for supplies and disappear without a trace...often making the entire village of people disappear with him. Halia seems to have determined that a large mirror of life trapping was involved in this after the mirror mysteriously showed up on the doorstep of this tower not long ago. It seems, from your investigation, that things went from bad to worse at that point as the entire tower's residents seem to have been slaughtered or fled. You are making your way through the final floor. It is going on late evening (about 6 - 7pm) and getting very dark in the tower, the snowstorm outside has all but abated by this point, blowing past the region you're in, leaving everything blanketed with several feet of snow.
As you enter the next room, you recognize it as a duplicate of the last; another guest room. Bed, chest, table and chairs are identical to the last...you would guess all of the furniture for the last two rooms were purchased from the same place at the same time (or crafted at the same time perhaps). Regardless, there are very few differences between this and the last room, even the sheets on the beds look like they were either purchased or at least made at the same time. As with the last room, the mirror shard is propped up against the wall on the table, facing the door. DM only:
You open the door into a fancily decorated bedroom. The chamber contains a large bed with semi-expensive looking sheets and pillowcases, a chest for possessions and a small table with a few chairs. While posh, you doubt with the size of the room that this is anything more than a guest chambers...albeit a guest chamber for important guests, but guests none-the-less. The generic decorations and lack of personalization of the room confirms your opinions that the chamber is normally uninhabited by any of the staff or normal tower occupants. On the table, leaning up against the wall but pointing at the doorway, is the room's shard of glass.
Appraise:
The tapestry is certainly well made and think, woven with good quality threads and an attention to details. While not nearly as nice as perhaps some of the higher quality and more expensive pieces you've had the opportunity to study and view in your lifetime, it's certainly not a "lesser quality" piece. You would estimate the Tapestry to be in the Mid/Upper range for quality, certainly not the same quality as the nobility would contract for, but certainly not the common man's decoration either. Given the size of the tower, the surrounding land, and the furniture and decorations you've seen (along with the size of the staff they must employ), the owners of this tower are neither chintzy with their money, nor lack in wealth.
Perception: You lean into the door, cupping your hand and listening for the sounds of movement beyond. A high pitched whistle, as of wind through a crack, sounds from within the room very faintly, but other than that, the room is quiet.
Dirk moves forward, looking all around the room to see if he can identify any hidden problems. Luckily for the party (or perhaps because nothing was there) Dirk makes it to the other end of the room and tries the door...which opens with merely a squeak of it's hinges. As expected, the back side of the doorway does have a locking bar on it, allowing it to be barred from the hallway side against attackers coming up the stairs. The hallway beyond is almost dark given the time of day and lack of light filtering into the hallway. Continuing into the gloom to both the left and right of your entrance point into it, multiple doors lead into other rooms of the upper floor...two of which are just to your left and right respectively. The hallway is like most others in the castle, with very little furniture, a few paintings and tapestries hanging on the wall, and a threadbare runner carpet covering the stone of the floor.
The six of you exit back out into the hall and make your way back through the office and back to the stairwell. Outside, the wind has calmed down significantly, late evening and the slight darkening of the interior of the place tell you that the sun is setting and evening is quickly turning into nighttime. The search through the tower has taken you most of the day, but the good news is that the storm outside seems to all but be abated and by tomorrow, hopefully, the pursuit of the patrols out looking for you may very well be behind you. Your treck to Speclarium and the Duke, to clear your names, may be back on track. At least, you think, this tower has been good for something. Exiting the stairwell, you enter a small hallway () leading into the rest of the fifth floor. The more militarily minded of you immediately recognizes this small corridor as a chokepoint for tower defense. Indeed this is likely a last ditch defensive corridor built for tower defenders in the cases where attackers enter the building. Both doors (into and out of the hall) are very heavy and bear three sets of locking bars each. The giveaway is that the bars on BOTH DOORS are on the south east side of the doors. (In other words, the bars are on the inside of the door leading out to the stairwell, but on the other door, into the rest of the tower, the bars are on the opposite side of you.) Surprisingly, there is no shard of mirror glass in this room. Two long tapestries, hung from a couple hooks near the ceiling of the tower on either side, span almost the entire length of both the north and south walls. Curious as to why tapestries are being hung in an obvious defensive corridor, you happen to glance behind one to note the tapestries hide a secret. Behind the tapestries, there are VERY small slits, about an inch wide and 3 - 5 inches long at random locations all along both the north and south walls, 10 - 15 on each wall. The meaning of the slits is clear: men on the opposite side of these walls can use the slits as murder holes, either for thin spears or arrows, to shoot or stab into the room. The tapestries have obviously been hung both for privacy sakes and to at least somewhat obscure the true purpose of the room. A further search of the room turns up nothing.
As you open the final door on the floor you see more of the same. Another storage area, more kegs of water, dried meats and vegetables and more bottled goods. In this case, however, the entire contents of the room look to be untouched. Whether the wandering creatures in the tower have simply avoided the room or whether they were just more careful is unknown. Just like in the last room, the shard of mirror glass is on the floor facing up just inside the door to the room. A search of the room turns up almost the same thing as last time, except you can't find any animal tracks, small or large...you suspect this is due to the fact that none of the food is actually obtainable...unlike the last room with stuff on the floor.
There's a small crack in the stone of the floor where either three stones came together with roundedish corners or a chunk of one of the stones got worn down/broken off with time. The crack/hole goes down to the wooden sub-floor* below and likely leads down a path where the rodents can run, perhaps even be able to find a way to the floor below. NOTE: * The ceiling of each floor is wood while the tower floors of each level are stone. General building practices in this day and age accomplish this by building a wooden "roof" on each floor, then laying the stone of the next floor on stubby rafters to trap some air in between the floor of the level and the ceiling of the last level...providing some minor insulation between floors. While you have NO idea how deep the distance is between the stone of the floor and the top of the ceiling (the air gap) it's generally no more than a few inches. In many cases this is also done to provide "hiding spaces" or "storage spaces" between floors. Many a tower owner has kept illicit or important items hidden beneath a trap door or a no-so-secure stone in the floor of a room.
The door into this chamber is slightly ajar causing you hesitation before entering. Each of you stops dead, barely breathing, as you listen for any sounds within the room. Hearing nothing, Dirk rushes the room with the rest of you following close behind only to find nothing threatening. The chamber holds kegs with water for emergencies, dried meats and vegetables, and bottled goods (vegetables, jellies, etc.). On the floor, just inside the door to the room, is the room's chunk of Mirror Glass, almost stepped on in your rush into the room. Several glass jars have either fallen off or were knocked off shelves, and are smashed on the floor through obvious mishandling (whether intentional or not is unknown). The contents are mostly untouched, however one jar of jelly has several pairs of obviously small rodent foot prints stalking away from it...not everything in this tower is dead obviously.
Given the size of the marks and the size of the jaws, you definitely couldn't rule out a monster of some kind...and there is no question that a creature like you fought below may very well be what took the bite out of the hanging meat. This would indicate to you () that the creature below had the run of the tower. Given the age of this meat, it had the run of the tower for at least several days to a week, again, consistent with the dried blood and other wreckage you've found around the tower. Perception 15:
It occurrs to you that the other creatures in the tower you've encountered...the jelly in the kitchen below and the baboon on the first floor...were untouched by the demon you encountered. Perhaps the jelly you faced on the second floor would have been able to hold it's own or otherwise win a fight, but the baboon on the first floor definitely would not have survived an encounter with the demon baboon creature you fought on the second floor. Further thought brings you to the concept that while it's possible a mobile creature like the baboon could or would have avoided the demon, it's unlikely that a creature wandering the tower for the last week, perhaps hungry or looking for food, would NOT have stumbled into the kitchen...and thus encountered the ooze. And while, again, the baboon and demon creature may have been friendly toward each other, the ooze is mindless and would have attacked regardless. And that leaves you one thought: There doesn't seem to be any other answer to the question of why the Ooze and the Demon didn't encounter each other than that the demon avoided the ooze...which meant that, somehow, the demon creature knew the ooze was there.
It's becoming clearer to all of you that about a week ago something happened in this tower...at which point there was some kind of attack and the tower was abandoned. Given the lack of bodies, either everyone escaped (unlikely given the amount of blood you've seen), the tower was cleaned up in some way by someone, or something more unsavory happened to the dead. Since that point, several creatures seem to have had the run of the tower, the worst of which seems to be the demon creature you fought below. The other creatures you still can't explain the presence of, but every indication is that the demon was a new "resident" of the tower...roaming about, perhaps looking for something to eat. How it got here remains a mystery also. Given the documents you found from the tower owners (Lady Halia and Lord Retameron), they were pursuing an investigation of a wizard known as Skarda (locally known under the identity of Mallek) who they found had links to the disappearance of entire villages full of people. Around this same time-frame of a week ago, the last information available states that a magical mirror of some sort (Halia identifies it potentially as a mirror of life trapping) shows up at the tower which Halia intends to study, believing it to be linked with Skarda/Mallek. Then there are the mirror shard pieces, each laid around the various rooms of the tower. Enough mirrored glass to make up dozens if not scores of normal sized mirrors, you've still found no link between the mirrored glass and the other events or creatures you've encountered. Where they came from, why they're placed so, and what function they have remains a mystery. Shaking your collective heads, you move on. Knowledge:Nature Check:
The bite marks are definitely consistent with the creature you killed below you. The size of the bites out of the meat are definitely consistent with the size of the extended jaws of the demon baboon below. You've also not encountered anything else in this tower that could come close to taking a bite like that out of a raw piece of meet such as this. Knowledge:Survival Check:
Looking at the floor you can definitely detect bits of meat and dried blood from when the animal corpse was bitten into and partially eaten, it's obvious that something large and messy was standing right here and yet there are no tracks. And even more frustrating, that's been the theme of the tower. A creature weighing at least as much as you do if not several hundred pounds more stomps around killing and spattering blood everywhere, possibly eating the corpses of the dead (where else would they have gone?), tromping about the tower, and yet not a track has been left. No footprints, no blood droplets coming out of doorways, no bits of people or other creatures being left around messily, nothing to indicate that an obviously mobile creature was ever wandering this tower. There's definitely evidence in the rooms of the creature's presence, and in some cases enough blood spattered about to indicate quite a mess, but never in the hallways or between rooms.
Moving to the next room (4.9), the six of you begin to open the door when you notice that it has an exceptionally tight seal on it. Opening it, you can see why. Large dead hunks of raw meat hang from hooks threaded in through the wooden beams above. By the looks, everything from chickens to cows to pigs to more wild animal (like deer) have been skinned, cleaned and are now hanging in this room which is cooler than all of the others you've been in in the tower...obviously helped by the sealed door. The slightly sweet smell of rancid meat reaches your nose as you proceed through the room, inspecting what you can. Only some of the meat has obviously gone bad, most of it is still in edible condition (though by the look of it probably not for a hugely long time). On the floor, propped up and facing the door, is the room's shard of mirror glass. Upon deeper inspection into the unlighted room, you find that several of the larger hunks of meat have very large chunks bitten out of them by huge sets of jaws. No particular order or type is affected more than the others, just seemingly randomly large hunks of the hanging carcases have been bitten out or off of the rest. A magical inspection of the room turns up no unusual magical activity. The most obviously thing
Moving back into the hallway you move down to the next door on your right which opens into another somewhat larger bedroom. More evidence of a cook's quarters, but this time it looks to house more than one. Three cots, three chests, and a small amount of other furniture in the room suggest three cooks live here...likely the chief cook's assistants. On one of the cots, propped up against the wall facing the door, is this room's ubiquitous shard of mirror glass. A search of the room turns up nothing more interesting than a few cooking implements, lesser chef's hats and aprons, and a letter in a drawer...addressed to Lady Halia and Master Retamerion. Curiosity getting the better of you, you open the letter to find it is a letter of resignation of service. The letter looks to have been written and addressed to the tower masters, but never delivered. Why the letter was never delivered is a mystery you may never solve. Other than citing some rather amusing and disgusting antics of the chief cook as reason for the departure, the letter is very apologetic to the tower masters and it's obvious that this assistant cook cared for the Master and Mistress of this tower and the other staff they worked with and for. A magical analysis of the room turns up nothing more interesting than the usual glow from the shard of glass.
The room you enter is obviously a personal room of some sort of someone slightly more important than the normal servant staff. The first thing you notice is the overstuffed bed, looking very comfortable (not quite luxurious, but certainly better than the almost pallets you saw from the bedrooms on the lower floors of the soldiers and tower staff) and warm. The bed is unmade and the sheets and blankets are thrown back as if hastily removed. A small luxury item: an intact mirror standing about 2 feet tall by a foot and a half wide, is hung in what looks to be a picture frame on the wall near a small table and stool. Other than the small table/stool/mirror and bed there is little else in the room other than two sizeable chests tucked away partially under the bed. The chests are not locked and contain clothing and personal effects, likely for the head cook of the tower given the nick knacks and, aprons and chefs hats in one of the two chests. Laying flat on the bed is the chamber's shard of mirror glass. A quick search of the room turns up no additional items or information of note.
The food rotting is consistent with the blood stains you've seen around the tower: Days, maybe upwards of a week...not weeks or months. The mirror's placement time is harder to determine. There is a fine layer of dust (thin, it's not been long) on the table and food while you THINK the layer of dust is thinner/lesser on the top of the mirror, but it's very difficult to tell given the time-frames in question. Were both items in question perishable, were there some signs of decay on the mirror glass that could be matched to something else, you might be able to make a clear determination. As it is, your best guess is that the mirror MIGHT be slightly newer in the room than the food...but you are FAR from certain whether this is the case or not. An extended search of the room provides no additional information so you proceed on to the next portion of the tower by exiting the room at the northwestern most door (in basically the westernmost corner of the room). You proceed out into the now standard hallway around the interior of the floor, surrounding the walled off stairwell. The stone floor of this level is covered by a few threadbare strips of carpeting and a few tapestries line the walls. In a few places small pieces of furniture sit unobtrusively out of the way holding nick nack decorations (an empty vase meant to hold flowers here, a small framed painting there, etc.). The hall is otherwise empty of contents and no mirror shard can be found...as is expected from the other floor's surrounding hallways.
Crossing the small hallway again to the southern door on the north western wall you carefully examine it for traps, though unexpected, and (as expected) find none. Pushing through the door you are immediately assaulted by a rancid smell. This is evidently the "upstairs kitchen" where meals for the residents of the top floor were cooked. You see a large fireplace on the east wall and tables all around, plus two doors on the west wall, one north, one south. The tables are full of rotting food, where the rancid smell is obviously coming from, indications of small rodents are all over the place...droppings on the floor and table, small bite marks out of the various foods on the table, even the sounds of small scrabbling feet and squeaks are coming from all over the room...from the dark places under tables, in corners, and behind other furniture. On one of the tables, facing the door, is the room's shard of glass.
The six of you crowd into the small antechamber and wait for Lash to check the door into the large room to the south west of where you're standing. Nodding her head once, Lash steps back to let Dirk open the door and lead the way into the room. The room is large, easily the size of a small cabin. 30x50 and richly decorated and very stylish. It contains one very long table and ten expensive and at least comfortably looking chairs. Laying flat on the table is the predicted shard of mirror glass. According to some of the documents you read and the descriptions Halya's notes on the Mirror gave, you are led to believe this is the room Halya set up to store/observe/study the mirror that was brought to the tower as a "gift". Conspicuously, the only thing here is a shard of mirror glass, no frame, or other signs of any kind of magical mirror are here at all. Detect Magic:
Your use of detect magic confirms your suspicions, there is no magical mirror in this room, other than the softly glowing shard on the table as you are used to by this point. Completing your magical search of the area you are almost ready to turn your attention back to the group when you notice something extremely faint... As you turn toward one end of the table, you are shocked to see a dim faint lingering magical aura hovering in the air above the far end of the table. The aura is large enough to cover the table to about 5 or 6 feet in length and about 3 feet across.
Detect Magic Cast + Spellcraft Roll = 20 or higher:
The magical aura is dim, very faint and almost dissipated at this point. Again, surprisingly, the aura identifies itself as strong abjuration when studied...this is consistent with a mirror of life trapping. Detect Magic + SpellCraft 20 or above (no additional roll) + Knowledge Nature 15, Raw Intelligence: 20: You sit stunned as the faint aura continues to dissipate in front of your eyes. The blood stains in the tower must be at least 3 - 4 days old given the conditions. This means either the mirror is currently in the tower and was recently moved, or you're dealing with an item of overwhelming power.
Realizing that the third floor is mostly clear at this point, at least to your knowledge, Lash leads the party up the central staircase, up the next flight of stars and into the 4th floor stairwell/landing. The air is slightly warmer up here given your memory (from viewing the tower outside) of the lack of windows on the floor and the fact that heat rises. The solid walls of the stairwell block out all but the loudest of sounds from the storm outside, which has recently been receding in violence over the last hour or so. It won't be long before the snows have blown themselves out. Fatigue is starting to settle into all of you. Given last night's interruption with the attack by assassins, and this morning's rush away from the patrols tracking you and into this tower, along with the simple fight against the cold and snows and your adrenaline peak starting to subside from the earlier battles in the tower, your legs feel leaden and you each long for a warm bedroll, even though it's only about 5 in the afternoon. Coming up the stairs to a 10x20 foot landing, you see a single door leading into the rest of the tower. "First floor was for Guests, Second floor for Servants, third floor storage," you think to yourselves, "wonder what this floor holds." Waiting for all of you to gather on the landing, Lash quietly checks the door for traps and steps back, allowing Dirk to push through first... Into a bare Antechamber. This is nothing more than an empty "room" between the other chambers and hallways of this floor. There is no furniture and, surprisingly, no shard of mirror glass. Three doors branch off into other sections of the tower's 4th floor awaiting your search.
Selena: As Theras flutters around the mirror she imparts a feeling of pain and surprise into your mind, finally flitting back to you to land on your shoulder, your injured shoulder.
Whatever it is that's at the back of your mind, it refuses to come to the surface. There's SOMETHING about Dirk and Mird looking into the mirror that triggered something in your mind, and it's obvious from Theras's reaction that your Familiar has noticed it also. (I'll leave it here till we determine if Theras has the ability to communicate or not.)
The both of you take your turn looking into the mirror, each of you straining your perceptions beyond what you're seeing, trying to "look past" the reality and into what may be lurking beyond. Unfortunately whether your minds cannot grasp it or whether these mirrors are, indeed, just mirrors, your experience is the same as those of any other morning where you've woken up and looked into any other normal mirror. All you see is the room behind you staring back at you. And your somewhat battered reflection mirroring your concentration. Selena - Perception 15:
There's something about Dirk and Mird looking into the mirror that makes you remember a recent event in the tower, something about your first encounter with the creature that is swimming around at the back of your mind but not quite coming to the forefront...a piece of information that your subconscious does seem to think is at least noteworthy. Selena - Perception 20: The actions of Dirk and Mird bring back a memory to you of several hours earlier when the Demon Baboon first appeared and attacked you. When you entered the room, there was no baboon, at least not one you could see or hear. It wasn't till you looked into the mirror and saw it standing behind you. It may very well be that the creature has some amazing skills or some inherent abilities like silence and invisibility or hiding/sneaking skills, but it does occur to you that the creature's first appearance came about not because it walked into the room or flopped down from the chimney, but because it appeared, behind you, as you looked into that first shard of mirror.
This room is identical to the last, same shape, same size, same contents. Other than some different small piles of different kinds of grains and the amounts in each, this room acts as the same kind of storage room as the last. More stone tables, mortars and pestles, and other grinding / crushing implements lay scattered around as haphazardly as in the last room. A thorough search turns up little more than the grains and implements. The room's mirror shard is stacked in the same place as the last room's, propped atop a bin facing the doorway.
The door to the room swings open easily and a small groove on the floor shows it's frequent use as the opening door catches on a upraised portion of stone as it passes over the top of it. The large room you've entered is obviously another storage area, this time it looks like for food stuffs. Stored in large wooden bins all over the room, is a great quantity of grain -- you see wheat, dried corn, and barley for the most part. Also in these chambers are grinding bowls and utensils for creating things out of these dried grains. A fine powder of crushed grains mixes with the normal dust settlement in the tower to create a thin layer of white over just about everything in the room. Various low stone tables act as stations for crushing and making various foods and goods (flower, tortillas, gruel, etc.), all of which are completely covered with the combined dust/powder. Propped atop a bin in the center of the room, facing the doorway, is this room's shard of mirror glass. Other than the bins of dry grains and the various work tables and implements such as bowls, crushing and mixing utensils, and the like, there is nothing you can find in the room. No chests, drawers or other areas for storage are found. The room does not look like it's been entered recently. There are no footprints in the dust/powder other than those you are making in your search of the room. Detect Magic:
Nothing magical shows in the room other than the shard of mirrored glass.
The next room () is almost identical to the last. 4 Beds, 4 Chests, and a Table with chairs surrounding it are the basis for what's in the room. Another check of the chests and search of the room reveals the same as the last...no additional information, some personal knick nacks of little value, and another servants quarters. The mirror glass in the room (for this room has one also) is sitting identically to the one in the last room. Propped up in the center of the floor facing the door. As with all the rest, the mirror shard is dully glowing with magic and the rest of the room is empty of magical or important mundane contents.
A quick check of the chests reveals the room to be a servants quarters. Common utilitarian servants clothing and some miscellaneous personal effects (not many of very high quality) bespeak the possessions of the common working class person in this part of Norwold. None of the chests contains any items or information of note. As expected, the magical scan of the room also provides no additional information other than the shards of mirror glass on the floor.
Opening the door () you cautiously enter. The room is a bit of a dishevelled mess, but not like those rooms you've encountered where attacks have occurred. This just looks like normal "lived in" messiness...a messiness not seen in the military sections of the castle. This chamber holds four cots and four chests and is obviously a bedchamber for the tower's servants. The fireplace on the north east wall looks unused in several days, though cinders and charred pieces of wood rest on an iron grate over a hole in the floor...it's obvious that the fireplace connects to the one in the room below and continues up into the floors above. The room is sparse with a single table and set of chairs other than the beds. Cloths and blankets lay somewhat strewn around in an "ordered chaos" kind of perspective. A glass half full of water sits on the table. In the center of the floor, propped up by a rough rock to face the door, is the room's shard of mirror glass.
None of the reports you read seemed to indicate any kind of attack like this. What you're seeing of this tower indicates more of an animal attack (and the creature you killed downstairs certainly looked more than capable of causing the havoc you've seen here) or monster attack than what you've ready and heard about described in some of these disappearances. That said, the fact that there's a bunch of blood and no bodies at all DOES in fact seem to ring true with other reports...no trace of any of the two villages of people were ever found and no evidence of who did the attacks were ever found either. That said, despite the demon-animal downstairs, from what you've read and discovered so far, there does seem to be a direct line correlation between Skarda, the attacks on the towns and the disappearance of everyone and everything living in them, and the evidence of what's happened here in the tower. To top it off, it sounds like a mirror like that MIGHT very well have come to the tower itself...at least Halia seemed to think so in her notes.
The cities and towns marked on the map are indeed familiar to you as you've traveled through several of them on your way to the Kiren's Keep all those weeks ago. They are the cities and towns of the surrounding area (mostly almost everything in the Duchy). As to the markers on the map, however, they remain a mystery. Nothing in your knowledge suggests a commonality between ALL of the markers. Certainly SOME of the markers share commonality geographically or historically, but there's really nothing that places all of the markers on the map in the same grouping. Detect Magic:
None of the markers are at all magical nor do they radiate anything even close to magical...actually nothing in this room radiates anything magically inclined...except, as usual, the broken mirror glass fragments on the floor. As Thantos muses over the locations being linked to Mallek/Skarda Armand steps forward to look at the map with a critical eye. "Interestingly enough" he says, pointing at two of the markers, "these markers on this map identify communities that do not exist anymore. It's interesting because since whatever happened to the communities happened, they've been ghost towns with little to no interest in them. Reports I received as Kiren's Keep's commander were that these two hamlets (and they really were little more than that) both ended up abandoned...overnight...with nary a cat, dog or bird left...not to mention the people having completely disappeared. This was years ago, however. Now that you mention it Thantos, and being reminded by Halia's report we just found, I do remember some talk among the military and various town watches years ago that the hamlets were attacked by some kind of raiding force that made off with everything...but we had discounted those stories as rumors...and didn't really worry due to the fact we were much larger than either of these hamlets." Studying the maps further, Armand continues "We know that this Retameron and Halia were interested in Skarda...there is a possibility that these markers do note something about the mage...perhaps recent sightings, or maybe just all of the known sightings or attacks that this raiding group has made." Armand shrugs.
The room you've entered is obviously some kind of meeting or planning room for military use. A long table stands in the middle of the room, surrounded by chairs. Maps of the surrounding vicinity, the Duchy as a whole, and Norwold as a whole are hung around the room and laid out on the table. Some rolls of paper are standing in a corner, probably other maps. One map, a somewhat detailed map of the Duchy with the various towns and cities, remains pinned into place in the center of the table. Several red painted wood markers have been placed in various locations on the map...what they are there for, you're not sure. It does, however, look like the tower inhabitants were looking for someone or something...and it's likely the markers in the various towns and locations identify sightings or events of interest. One of the chairs has been moved from it's place on the floor to sitting on the table and the ubiquitous shard of mirror glass has been propped up on the chair facing the doorway to the hall. A doorway in the west wall leads into another room...more than likely the office room you just left.
Being one of the most well known and fabled devices of a magical nature, you've each heard at least the basics of what a mirror of life trapping is and does. (Feel free to read the description of the item, while the details of numbers and such aren't going to be there, the general description and information contained in the description of the item are known to both of you.)
The snick of the lock clicking open is soft and sweet in Lash's ears, reminding her of easier days long gone. Grinning Lash stands up and slowly opens the desk drawer. Among the drawer are some papers that look confidential in nature. Most of them are personnel related (salaries of the staff, soldiers and help, documentation on various items of the keep that the owners likely wanted to ensure weren't either public knowledge or at least were less "visible" to the rest...things like a private wine stash and decorations of a more expensive nature. Two documents stand out in your mind through your search of the private papers. The first is a short document, obviously released from duchy officials in what surely looks like a military briefing. The document has the official seal of the Duchy and is signed by someone Armand recognizes as a military official for the Duke himself. A transcript of the Document can be found Here () The second document, attached to the first is a short "journal" entry in what looks to be a female hand, probably Halia's. April 13th, 628PH
Retameron has hired 3 more guards for the tower and has some of our old friends on call in case of attack...and I'm sure SOMETHING is going to happen. If this is Skarda, there's no way he can allow the key to his success to be destroyed...he'll try something. For the moment, we have the mirror covered in our bedroom upstairs. I simply need to find the secrets to this Mirror of Life Trapping and I should be able to reverse the years of destruction Mallek has gotten away with. Just a few more days and I should have it... ----------------------- The entry ends here. The bloodstains and other debris in the tower you've come across are consistent with something happening around that timeframe. ()
Looking around the room, you find little of value but several items of interest. The room doesn't seem to have any indications of anything out of the ordinary (secret doors or compartments, hidden chests or walls, etc.) and just has a well used feel to it. Searching the desk tops you find several letters of correspondence between the tower owners and many people of import you recognize from the local region, including Duke Stephan himself. Obviously the owners of this tower were of some importance or renown in the area. The letters speak of the owners of the tower as an adventuring couple: a Mage of some skill (at least by reputation according to the personal correspondence), by name of Halia, and her husband, a warrior who obviously served in a regional militia before becoming an adventurer, by name of Retamerion ([ooc]The spelling of that name is wrong, I don't have my notes front of me right now, It'll get corrected in the next post). Many of the letters are personal in nature and spell out a previous adventuring career by the adventuring couple before settling down with their spoils to a life less hectic. Other letters are simple inventory/correspondence with various suppliers of goods...obviously part of the rigours of owning your own place in the wilderness. Yet others indicate correspondence with some of the upper echelon nobility of both the surrounding regions and Speclarium, the capital city of the Duchy...including (as mentioned) Duke Stephan himself. Beyond standard personal greetings and requests for better patrolling of the vicinities (most of which were politely rebuffed by the Duke or other military commanders), little is gleaned from the contents of the writing. Nothing obvious bespeaks of problems that could indicate what might have wiped out the citizens of the tower however. The only thing of note, however, is one drawer in Halia's desk is locked, and there is no key to be found. The drawer does not look as if it's been forced open either.
The mirror crashes to the ground, the crash and tinkle of glass reverberates around the room a second and periodically continues as Selena uses the butt of her staff to break up the larger pieces.
Upon opening the door the room is noticeably colder than the hallway or the rooms on the first two floors. Upon entering the chamber the six of you recognize it for an office or planning room of some sort. Two desks dominate the south and west walls of the room and the first window you've seen in the tower stands closed and shuttered against the cold outside. Waves of cold radiate from the window denoting the chill outside seeping through the uninsulated glass. Turning your attention to the room, several chairs lay scattered about, almost haphazardly, and the contents of each of the desks are in a slight disarray. Not a disorganized disarray, but denoting work in progress. The room has a very "lived in" feel to it. The two large leather bound chairs are a bit rickety but still sturdy and comfortable looking, the desks are obviously well used and each desk reflects the habits of a different person...from the way the papers on it are scattered about to where and how the quills and ink are set. Gouge marks on the stone floor are worn in denoting where the wood of the legs has scraped, over and over again, against the stone floor. One of the two desk chairs stands turned around and propped up on it, facing the door to the hall, is the room's shard of mirror glass. A door on the east wall leads into another room, presumably the one the door in front of you when you entered the hall would go to.
Returning back to the stairwell on the first floor you begin to climb to the third level, exiting into a hallway very much like that of floor 2, there are three doors in front of you (one straight ahead, one to your left, one to your right) and the central hall seems to continue all the way around the central stair case. A quick look down the hallway doesn't show any signs of mirrored glass, creatures or other dangers. Outside the fury of the storm seems to be abating somewhat. The thunder has all but stopped, rolling off into the distance, and while the wind still blows it's chill (and likely snow still falls) it doesn't seem quite as strong as it was earlier this morning when you entered the tower.
Getting a negative response to Mird's question and accounting for Selena's hesitancy and his own sense of letting sleeping dogs lie, Thantos begins a short set of somatic movements followed by a couple spidery words in the language of magic, targeting the shard of glass perched precariously on the wine bottles. The shard of mirror glass responds as expected to Thantos's spell, and falls the almost 5 feet to the floor to shatter into a few tens of shards on the ground with a loud crash that echoes around the room. Wincing at the noise, Selena takes a look around the room trying to determine whether anything of value has been left around. While the wine is of obvious quality, it is neither expensive nor overly rare. The rest of the room turns out to be pretty bland and boring and reveals nothing else of interest.
Other than it's size this piece of mirror glass seems to share the same properties as all the other pieces you've found so far.
seems to be a "wine cellar" of some sort. Several racks of wine and a few large kegs of beer dominate the majority of the room, with easy to traverse rows between racks of wine and access to each of the large kegs seeming to be planned out. The wines do seem to be grouped by date of production and type. You notice that none of the bottles bear any well known names or brands...all of the stuff in this room seems pretty common to you other than some obvious home-brew type of stuff. Nothing here would be considered the "good stuff". Delicately balanced on a set of bottle-necks facing the door on a rack right in front of you is a large, squarish, piece of mirror-glass about 2' in diameter.
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