"Wow so neat" Lyre mumbles to herself watching the metal objects swing about.
Hmm, interesting....
Tippy looks about the room, observing the strange occurances with a good deal of curiosity.
Well, I suppose we should head downstairs to make sure everyone is ok. And to see whether this is some nefarious plot from Clegg Zincher.
Tsadok rushes downstairs, followed at a more leisurely pace by Tippello . The casino floor is a sea of confused commotion, but there are no immediate signs of threat or combat. Over at the Ghoulette wheel, the ball is sticking to the center of the wheel, and Lixie Parmenter is pulling it off and watching it snap back to the center with an air of childlike fascination; the kitchen seems to be wrestling with an entire set of cooking utensils that don't want to be removed from the large iron cookpot in the fireplace; and over near the cashier's cage, one of the guards is looking with annoyance at his shortsword, which is now hanging from the metal bars in front of one of the cashier windows.
Sam meets Tsadok as he reaches the casino floor, looking both intrigued and frightened. "I saw it begin," she says in an excited whisper. "The whole room was suddenly flooded wth a magic aura - I couldn't tell the school, or maybe it was several different effects that got all mixed up - but it was everywhere, everywhere I looked, in the walls and all across the room and everywhere. It was amazing...!"
"Any ideas on what caused this?" Tsadok says, in a much quieter voice now that he realizes that this doesn't appear to be the assault everyone expects. "Wait, hold that thought."
Perception in the Goblin:
Perception on the street:
Chuckling at the non-lethal antics of this strange occurance, Tippello makes his way outside with Tsadok.
Perhaps it's some kind of side effect of the blot sitting there in the sky, that's got so many of the citys wizards so intrigued. Either way it doesn't seem as though we have much choice but to just deal with it as best we can till we can find out more.
Tippy shrugs and heads back inside to try and help return things to normal.
Saul joins the confused crowd, and Larur appears from somewhere to speak to him. The two begin a quick look around the casino, and after a moment, Saul leaps up onto the dais and proclaims, "Good people! Strange as these events may seem, they don't appear to be causing any harm - in just a few minutes, we'll start up the games again!" He pauses and frowns, and the words Assuming it stops sometime soon... are all but written on his face. With a shake of his head, however, he continues, "In the meantime, perhaps you'd like a drink at the bar? For the next five minutes, all our profits will go to our cleric of Desna as an offering to the goddess!"
The words seem to calm the crowd, and several people do begin moving toward the bar, causing the waitresses - as much in shock as the rest of the crowd thus far - to shake themselves into action. In moments, a strange, fragile calm seems to be in place.
Tippello's channeled energy seems to have no effect on the "magnetism," but in combination with Saul's words, most of the crowd offers a brief prayer to Desna in response.
Outside, Tsadok sees similar expressions of confusion and apprehension on the passersby; it seems clear that the effect, whatever it was, encompassed at least the blocks around the Goblin, if not more.
Tsadok walks back into the Goblin, a look of relief upon his face. He walks to Saul, "Well, the good news is that this occurred all up and down the street. The bad news, of course, is that it occurred up and down the street."
"Anyone got a clue as to what kind of magic this is, if that's what it truly is."
Stepping off the dais, Saul looks around, considering. "He might, but this doesn't seem his style to me. Hells, though, I don't know whose style this is."
"What of that cursed Blot in the sky? Does it produce effects like this?"
"It's only been up there a month, but not so far, no. Weird things do sometimes happen around the Cyphergate, of course, but this...?"
The other two raise their spears and attack, shifting as they do so to prepare for a flanking maneuver with their next strikes. Their strikes are clumsy and slow, however, and the nimble elf has no trouble evading them.
"What kind of wierd things happen around the Cyphergate? Anything that would act like this? Perhaps the magic of the Cyphergate is interacting with the blot or just expanding if that's the case... Which could be putting us all at risk."
Tsadok folds his arms and bows his head, his brow furrowed in thought. He looks up, but only for a moment, as he says:
"The other question I have is what triggered this."
The effect lasts another couple of minutes; then, with litte fanfare, all of the metallic objects in the room quietly and without fuss stop sticking to one another, returning to their usual behaviors.
As the day wears on, it becomes clear that the event happened everywhere in the city, and though Riddleport is disturbed by it, the population quickly seems to return to its own concerns.
"So, does anyone have any good ideas as to what's next?"
"I agree, Mario. Where do we start, though? Is this something from one of the Cyphergates, or is it the Blot, or something else entirely? Maybe a ritual of some sort? What kind of ritual would do this, and what cult would do it are two of my questions."
"We could just ask about town?" Lyre suggests
I can do some asking around town if you'd like. I have a talent for gathering information.
"Good idea both of you, but don't you think that the entire town would be rioting if they knew where this was coming from? I'm all for looking about town, just to be sure, but I'm not certain it will produce the results we're looking for."
Diplomacy check .
Tipello is able to learn that the effect covered all of Riddleport as well as some distance out into the bay (several fishing boats and cargo ships heading into port encountered the event before they reached the Cyphergate, let alone the city docks); in general, everyone in town seems to assume it's one of the many slight peculiarities that proximity to the Cyphergate drops into the lives of Riddleport's citizens, though no one can ever remember anything quite like this.
The Blot, for that matter, is generally assumed to be the same thing: some bizarre side-effect of the Cyphergate, unusual in its size and duration, but otherwise not particularly worthy of concern. Only the cyphermages seems to be seriously worried about it, inasmuch as they haven't found anything that links the Blot to the Cyphergate at all, and typically the Cyphergate's effects don't manifest separate magical auras of their own - apparently, the Blot does, and the impression Tippy gets from the cyphermages he speaks to is that they're pretty sure that means the two things (the Blot and the Cyphergate) aren't related. This theory doesn't seem to have reached out into the general populace, however.
Diplomacy:
Diplomacy:
*Result of 2*
Diplomacy:
Intimidate:
Tsadok's attempts to build upon Tippello's inquiries prove entirely fruitless.
Tsadok's attempts to build upon Tippello's inquiries prove entirely fruitless.
Unfortunately, Mario - though with far fewer glares and threats of violence against his person - also doesn't get very far with the cyphermages, most of whom seem to think a "simple swordsman" wouldn't understand them anyway. (Indeed, they might well be right in that regard.)
At one point, however, one of the mages he is speaking to, a short, dark-haired half-elf with a ratlike face and a scar over one eye, attempts to conjure up an illusion to describe the aspect of the Cyphergate he is trying to explain to Mario when something very odd happens. The image of the Cyphergate appears, shimmering over the tavern table, but it appears to be smoking: a strange, purplish fume drifts up from it. With a start, the sorcerer lets the illusion go, and it flickers out of existence, but the puff of purple smoke continues to drift up toward the ceiling, apparently a real conjuration from the illusionary spell. "What in Nethys' name...?" the boy says, then murmurs another spell - only to have curls of purple smoke begin drifting up from his eyes as he does so. "What is going on?" he says, looking around in confusion, little whiffs of purple trailing behind the movement of his head.
Lyre gets great amusment for an hour or so casting cantrips just to see the smoke affect.
Lyre's unscientific experimentation nevertheless produces some useful data: as far as she can tell, her spells produce purple smoke (in addition to their usual effects) for almost exactly 1 hour - an hour and about 6 minutes, to be precise.
Perception
Lyre is apparently having to much fun messing about to notice anything
Lil is apparently with a client when Mario arrives, and though he receives several offers from other Temple acolytes to help him pass the time, none of them have any insights to offer about the peculiar events or the Blot itself.
While the investigations and personal adventures proceed, life at the Goblin moves forward as well, and quickly the end of the Goblin's second week of operation approaches. Saul, still pleased about the previous week's profits, seems optimistic as he makes his way into the counting room to do the books on the following Starday.
Antianel, though put off by the week's events, seems caught up in his own thoughts and projects, and seems little concerned by any potential magical peculiarites of the Blot of the Cyphergate. He is far more interested in the talk of an attack by Clegg Zincher, however, and spends the week giving a sharp and narrow glare to any who seem like they might want to threaten the casino.
Lyre goes back to attracting people into the goblin
Bluff checks
Tsadok remains in the rafters, occasionally asking Sam a question or three. So long as it stays UN-eventful Tsadok will begin each day much like he did at the monastery, in silence. He appears torn in a decision, and then relaxes after a day or so.
He pulls everyone together, and explains what has been bothering him.
"Guys, I've done some... research on the Blot. Someone in the town knows what caused it and what the key is to removing it, perhaps even where this key is. The key to removing the blot, however, is not in town. The worst part is that the blot itself was made by someone intentionally. I can't say much more, as my source didn't have much more information. Does this help in any way?"
"Guys, I've done some... research on the Blot. Someone in the town knows what caused it and what the key is to removing it, perhaps even where this key is. The key to removing the blot, however, is not in town. The worst part is that the blot itself was made by someone intentionally. I can't say much more, as my source didn't have much more information. Does this help in any way?"
To me, the more important question would be whether or not the blot is harmful or intended to be as such. And if it is harmful, who exactly is responsible for it's creation, because they surely must be stopped if so.
"I say fellows, has anyone seen the luscious Daelin?"
"I'm afraid not, my comrades. I wonder where she could be."