"I like the look of these webs little", says Sparrow. "And those prints, what manner of beast could have made them? They seem too small for humans." She kneels down and examines the tracks.

OOC: It's not like she knows how to track, but she's looking for anything obvious, ie. these are spider or cat tracks.

 Ragged Tom scratches at the door and enters from outside the door, trilling and bussing anyone's legs they allow, proud of himself...then drops a fat body at sparrow's feet. He sat with a fat smug look on his face smiling up at her.

"Let me," Motoko nodded as she knelt down beside Sparrow in order to take a closer look.  She examined the prints as well, drawing upon her knowledge of the wild for any possible ideas as to what left such tracks.

She became momentarily distracted, however, when the Ragged Tom came in.

She watches slightly as she keeps an eye out "I hope that is not Rinaldo, is it?"
This message was last updated by the GM at 04:14, Sun 11 June 2017.

The critter prints going under the door, maybe mice, lizards, or tiny little bugs or millipedes etc.

The fat body is a rat, now dead.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:25, Mon 19 June 2017.

Shaking his head at the Ragged Tom, lilbug follows Lady Xi and Crow into the next room, scanning warily and watching for anything suspicious.  He stops just a few steps in and gazes around to see what's there before he goes further.

"It appears to be a rat, Lady Xi.  I'm sure he's quite proud of himself.  I do hope there aren't many of them around here..."

 As you head past the cat, rat and doorway, you come to a landing and stairs going down around and around.

"Shall I go first and see what is around the corner?  I cannot see around them, but I'm willing to scout ahead."  The slave boy peered at the stairs dubiously, but none the less took a few steps down and, if no one disagreed, he continued warily around the corner.

"Thank you, dear cat", says Sparrow quietly, and she gently pets the cat. Then, seeing that lilbug is stepping ahead to scout, she follows at a safe distance, ready to leap to his aid should he run in trouble... or at least help pull him to safety!

You are both going down around and around, barely able to see each other. It's making you both so dizzy you can't tell if you are going up or down!

Xi follows the others.  Think this wiser since busting the door down

 You are all feeling a bit whoozy when suddenly you confront a hazy fuzzy door on a landing at the end of the stairs, but your vision wavers between the door, and the stairs continuing down...

The slave boy stares at the hazy door, trying to make sense of what he is seeing.  He tries to focus on the indistinct portal, but it just makes his head hurt.  Seeing Sparrow and the Lady Xi following, he waits for them to make it to the landing.  Once they are in sight of the door, he calls out to them:

"Lady Xi, Sparrow, this is surely one of the strangest doors I have ever seen, at least I think its a door...isn't it?"

He defers to Lady Xi of course, being a slave boy, but he clearly values and desires input from both ladies.

"It is odd...Like the distance is ...off" she responded she closed her eyes and shook her head a moment.  Opening attempted to refocus.

The ghostly door still floats there, either before you, or the stairs continue down and around, as seen through the door.

"Hold up and gather, if you please", said the slave girl gently. "I am no great expert on magic, but I suspect this is some manner of illusion spell aimed at preventing us from perceiving the door. It's possible we haven't moved at all even though it felt we were walking. The worst thing we could do is lose track of each other in this confusion."

She racked her brain for the oddly unfamiliar knowledge of Arcane matters, to see if she knew aught of such spells...

OOC: Know Arcana, Spellcraft, or Bardic knowledge perhaps? Feel free to make the roll for me to speed thing up.

00:42, Today: Sadina, on behalf of sparrow, rolled 27 using 1d20+7. spellcraft
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:44, Sat 08 July 2017.

 The tom wraps himself around sparrows leg then sits and watches her.

Sparrow went to one knee as she considered the problem, and gently scratched the cat behind the ears.

After a moment, she nodded. "The spell is fooling our eyes most of all, and so if we close our eyes and step forth, perhaps our sense of touch will be harder to fool" she said. She was quite confident in her answer though it seemed a little odd to her that she would know such things... but then her transformation had not merely been one of body.

She gave the cat one last petting, then straightened. She closed her eyes, extended one slender arm before herself, and stepped forward slowly, until her delicate hand touched something...

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?  Maybe you should hold onto something first in case you fall into a hole or something," Crow piped in just as Sparrow started feeling around the air in front of her.  He rubbed his temple, attempting to clear his mind of the dizzying effect of whatever magical spell was affecting the group.  He reached out to the side to touch the wall... or the railing.  Whichever was actually there.

Motoko looked past the others toward the fuzzy, floating door.  She rubbed her eyes and attempted to refocus, but whatever was causing that dizzying effect was proving to be quite distracting.  Taking Sparrow's advice, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes in an attempt to readjust herself.

She remembered a simple meditation technique that she had been taught during her training.  She focused on her fighting spirit and dedication toward victory.  Break free of whatever was keeping her from her goal.  Ignore the whooziness.  Ignore the dizziness.  Focus only on what was truly before her.

She reopened her eyes just as Sparrow started walking forth with her hand extended.

OOC: Using Iron Heart Surge

Sparrow reached forth and feels...old wood, with a deep grain, iron hinges and door, and many sections of panels.

Motoko opens her eyes and sees...a wooden door in front of her, with many wooden panels with colorful designs and iron hinges. The door for her is no longer hazy or fuzzy and the steps end at the door.

Sparrow smiled in self-satisfaction. "Here we are. It may be worth checking for other traps, just in case, though we should not spend as much time as we did prior."

The slave boy nodded to sparrow and shut his eyes tight as she had.  If she assured him this was an illusion then that's what it was.   Reaching out with his hands he felt for the wood.  "The door is there," he said quietly, like a mantra to boost his confidence.

A smarmy like twist of her pout lips Xi then closed her eyes.  focusing on what should be a door she carefully made notes of any breeze the might come about.  Last thing she wanted was to fall out a window.