Malissin checks for traps in the southern door but does not find any.

The party proceeds through the door, and finds itself in another crystal focus room.  (You are in room 32c.)



The transfinite repeater display in this room is set to 528373567447.






CURRENTLY SET TO 528373567447

Kahan writes down the number on a piece of parchment, stuffing it into his belt. "We need to keep a better track of these numbers. They are likely more important than they seem." he states, mostly to himself.

Harak says Malissin should check for secret doors,especially in the south area.  "We found one before,"he says as he looks closely at the crystal device machine.  "The numbers must be something to do with that big center room.  I mean, why did undead creatures just appear out of nowhere?"  He scratches his chin and waits.

Borimer scratches his head and also waits, unsure what the numbers mean but almost certain he won't like finding out.

While the others look on, Malissin searches for secret doors but doesn't find anything.

"If memory serves, the numbers in the 'display' were very similar to the numbers we found with the word 'Dead'.....so maybe there will be more clues in the rest of this floor or possibly upstairs.  One things is for sure...we won't solve this by standing around in this room.  Do we want to go upstairs or check out the southern part of this level?" OOC: What I mean is go back all the way around to 22/23, or go upstairs in room 21?

"Let's go up the stairs and hunt down this serpentine wench once and for all."

Malissin nods,

"If we can get that crown on her head, this whole place will get a whole lot easier."

"Like I said before, I am uncertain whether using the crown will even effect Esylia. She has completely lost her mind, and the effects of her moral code might be so minuscule compared to her hatred for other beings that she will simply kill us regardless of the crown's effects." The priest states, heading out when the others are ready to move upstairs (or was it downstairs, since we started one floor below and the floor above us was actually below us?).

"If we could even get it ON her head to begin with.  Unfortunately I have to agree with Kahan on this...the crown is probably not the answer.  So let's go back and move upstairs carefully."

Flint moves back into Rm 21 and waits by the stairs.

"I assume Malissin is going first to see if he can stealthily peek into the room upstairs?  If so I can help in that regard by casting a spell on you that makes you invisible (to most)...."

You go up the stairs to the point marked 26 on the map.  You stand in a narrow hallway with three doors and the stairs leading back down, as shown:

Malissin will creep up the stairs, carefully keeping his eyes cast down as much as possible to avoid accidental petrification.

OOC: Heath, I'll let you roll my stealth checks to again keep things hidden. I'll assume that I"m stealthy, but you'll know whether I am or not.

You are already at the top of the stairs.  This is the third and final floor.

Malissin will check for traps on the "right" door (it will be on Malisson's left as he leaves the stairwell.

He then comes down to the second floor to bring the rest of the party up.

"A hallway with three doors. I always believe that given the choice, the left door provides the answers so that is the way I think we should proceed."

"It matters not to me, although judging by the floor plan from the previous two floors and their similarities, this floor is likely to follow the same sort of structure, at least somewhat. Take from that what you will." Kahan states, looking around at the others.

The east door does not appear to be trapped, but it is locked (non-magically), and appears to have been locked for some time with a rather intricate lock.  It appears that someone has tried to break through the door using force, but it is made of stone and has apparently held.  (-20% chance to open on a pick locks attempt.)

"Malissin, can you please check the other two doors for traps and or sounds?  Then we can try to make some intelligent pick."

OOC: Malissin, would you mind if I called you Mal?  I keep having to look up the spelling for your full name, LOL.  Old age creeping up on me I guess....

"I'm not sure if this has any influence on the situation, but for some reason, this lock is gnomish. I have no idea where it came from specifically, but I'm guessing some gnomes do not want anyone in this room." the priest stated.

Mal nods.

"The lock will be difficult to pick, but I can try."

Mal will check the west and south doors for traps before attempting to pick the gnomish lock.


OOC:
15:32, Today: Malissin rolled 55 using 1d100. lockpick.

"Gnomes..."

Borimer mutters while keeping his eyes alert to the surroundings, one hand always near Chianta's hilt.

Mal takes note of Borimer's fondness for the weapon. Leaning in towards Kahan, Mal whispers something.

Chuckling a little, Kahan nods, turning to the rogue and replying in a whisper.

Mal finds that this lock is rather difficult, and he spends a good deal of time working on.  But after about fifteen minutes, he hears a satisfying click, and the door unlocks.

Mal opens the door and you all look inside.

ROOM 29

You are peering into room 29.  This small, 10 foot by 10 foot room has only two interesting things in it.

First, the south wall is covered in a bizarre, ornate creation of metal rods, glass panes, globes, and ancient symbols, some sort of control mechanism for something.  It has some writings on it.  There are two crystal flat slabs (screens), one on the left and one on the right.  The one on the left is totally blank, but the one on the right appears to be projecting or viewing into a room, as though through a periscope.

Second, you are not alone.  Standing there, looking at the screen, is a gnome clad in the robes of the ancient Harkahnon order.  He turns when you enter and, upon seeing your face, appears to start scolding you, with one finger wagging.  There are just two problems.  The gnome is not completely solid, translucent.  He appears to be some kind of ghost.  And although he seems to be speaking to you, he makes no sound.

The door to the east appears also to be locked with the same gnomish lock that Mal just picked, though it unlocks from the inside.

On the north side of the room, you see a fading, rotting robe with a small skeleton inside.  It doesn't take a genius to understand that this is the final resting place for this gnomish ghost standing in front of you.

Mal quickly ducks back out of the room, not wishing to tangle with a ghost.

"Anyone speak Gnomish? Looks like some sort of...actually I don't know what that room is but it seems important. And gnomish."

Borimer feels Chianta itching to fight this undead corruption, yet he does nothing more than ready himself for when this gnome requires a more permanent death.  As an afterthought, Borimer steps into the room and unsheathes his blade...
This message was last edited by the player at 18:53, Mon 17 Sept 2012.

Borimer unsheathes his blade and mutters some sort of chant, but nothing seems to happen.

"Hold off there for a minute Borimer...if it meant us harm I think it would have attacked us already"

Flint enters the room and moves towards the ghost.

"Let me see if I can understand what he's saying..."

Flint mumbles some arcane words and a bit of soot and salt fall from his fingers as he reaches out to touch the apparition....

<OOC: Flint is casting a Comprehend Languages spell in an attempt to 'hear' and understand the ghost>

Flint casts a spell and tries to touch the apparition, but his hands go through its incorporeal form without effect, and there is still no sound coming from the mouth of the ghostly gnome.

"I guess your spell doesn't let you speak with the dead? Can you read the control panel at least?"

Meanwhile, the ghost still appears to be chastizing you and pointing to the broken screen as though you are responsible for breaking it.  You can tell it is very angry and possibly not logical anymore.

EDIT: Please keep in mind that even when spells don't do as desired, if cast or if interrupted (lost), they still count against your daily total.  So make sure to mark them off the list.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:44, Mon 17 Sept 2012.

"Yeah, I was hoping it might work, but apparently not."

[OOC: I knew it was a longshot, but you have to try, right?  Anyway, maybe it'll still come in handy...]

Flint moves to the control panel and looks it over.

"Maybe my temporary insight into the gnomish language might help with this..."

Flint tries to make some sort of sense of the machine in front of him....

Flint looks over the writings.

The machine has dials underneath each screen with writing by the dials.  Underneath the dials are a number of buttons, a crank, and some levers.

The ghost does not appear to like Flint's close inspection and his hands curl into fists as it prepares to attack.

Thinking quickly Flint tells the group "At a quick guess I think this is the control room of that Brass Golem we were attacked by...."  Motioning to the ghost "and the owner looks pretty upset."

"If we could defuse the situation by apologizing or something, maybe he'll let us use the other Golem for our own purposes.....but we'd better come up with an idea fast"

Trying to be in view of the 'ghost' and pointing to the Broken screen and then to the group, Flint tries to make some sign of appeasement or apology.

Kahan moves up towards the ghost and points to the screen, bowing in apology to the gnome before casting a spell.

Kahan begins casting a spell.

OOC: The spell description is not clear, but I will allow you to cast this on Flint if you want, since Flint now understands Gnomish for a short time.  I don't think Kahan speaks Gnomish.  Typically, this spell is also cast on a corpse, not on a ghost itself, but I think this warrants an adjustment, so I will treat it like a spell at your level.  This means you (or Flint) may ask the ghost 3 questions.  It will not allow you to perceive his talking otherwise, as you will see when the spell takes effect, not while in the material plane anyway.

Yes, Kahan would realize the spell does not cross language barriers and would cast it on Flint and the skeleton in the corner.

So Flint can ask three questions.  Technically, the questions are being directed to the skeleton, not the ghost, even though the ghost belongs to the skeleton.

I will proceed tomorrow with the questions Flint proposed unless someone else says otherwise.

Flint asks, "Can you tell us how to operate the Ark to take us to Allevia?"

The corpse's dead voice responds in Gnomish, which Flint translates while he still can:  "The Time Ark cannot work properly with the Venue Ark unless both gems are in place.  I never had both gems and could never get it working again, else I would have escaped this prison after the curse."

The ghost of the gnome, in hearing his own voice as if out of nowhere, stops his ravings, confused, and looks around for the location of the disembodied voice -- which is his own voice but which is not coming from his incorporeal mouth.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:03, Thu 20 Sept 2012.

"Of course we don't know where the other gem is, either, except 'in the future'." Kahan responds, shaking his head a little. He looked at Flint, expecting him to have another question to ask.

Turning to Kahan, Flint comments "Yeah, notice he didn't exactly answer my question though...we already knew that two gems were missing and that it wouldn't work without them...but if we find the gems how do we work it?  Should I ask him that or something else?"

As continuing an answer to the previous question, the voice responds, "The numbers must align to the place and time you want to go.  Then you touch the Time Ark to travel through time or enter the Venue Ark to travel through time and space.  Or so the scholars say."

OOC: I'm not sure what more you were trying to get out of him with your first question.

Flint asks, "We know where the Time Ark is, but where is the control room for the Venue Ark?"

The incorporeal voice states, as translated by Flint, "Control room?  What a strange word.  This temple was erected to send men to all places and times. The Time Ark was perfected first, and the Venue Ark was built into the center of the temple.  The crystal focus rooms transfer the energy into the room, and the glowing sphere will transport any who walk through it to the place of the numbers.  It is a room of strange proportions, and the gods cursed us for our hubris by sending the temple into ruins.  But the codes were brought to us by a man from the future.  We wrote them and put them in our library.  His name was Azaron Ashe.  Most of our order used the Venue Ark, never to return.  But then the gems were gone, and Azaron Ashe disappeared -- taking them with him, I presume -- and we were cursed by the gods, and never found the gems again."

The voice seems to wait.  You have one more question.

The ghost is paused, listening to his own voice in sadness.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:04, Thu 20 Sept 2012.

OOC: Ok, some of you may not like this, but I feel it is in character with a Lawful Good character....so I'm going to abscond with the last question.

Bowing to the gnome, Flint says "Thank you Master Gnome for your answers.  We will try to make use of them as best we can.  For my final question, I would ask if there is something we can do for you or your remains so that you may rejoin your kind in the afterlife?"

"Burn them," he says.  "It is our way."

Hearing his own voice say this, the ghost seems to go berserk, curling its claws into hands as if to attack the nearest people (Kahan and Flint).

"Borimer, please take care of this ghost before he attacks us." Kahan states, sounding a little worried. He wasn't a fan of undead, especially the kind that had just killed his friend. Drawing his mace, he prepares to strike should the ghost move towards them.

Harak had been standing silent and hidden amongst the shadows, but his form suddenly comes into view in the corner of the room as he stops to pull a torch from his pack. "I say we burn the corpse and its cloak like it told us to do."  He is also pulling flint and tinder to strike aq fire to the torch, and he is pouring oil from a vial over the torch.

"Just get to it then. Hopefully if you burn the corpse the ghost will go with it." Kahan replies, nodding, eyeing the ghost carefully.

Borimer moves as soon as Kahan voices his concern and attacks the apparition with two quick swipes of his longsword.

Harak quickly gets the fire set and sends the sparks and flame onto the cloak over the bones, which instantly ignite.

The ghost attacks Flint, but Flint dodges out of the way just in time.  It also reaches out to strike Kahan, who also steps out of the way and returns the attack.

Borimer steps into the small room and swings twice, hitting the ghost.

Between Borimer's swings, Kahan's Mace of Disruption, and Harak's flames, the ghost vanishes.

You now have a flaming pile of robes quickly filling the small 10 foot by 10 foot room up with smoke.

Those in the room (Harak, Flint, Kahan, Borimer) begin to cough from the smoke.

Borimer begins stomping out the flames with his armored boots while softly cursing in Allevian.

Kahan quickly steps out of the room, preparing to close the door once the others are out. "The flames won't be able to spread once the air supply is cut off." he states, motioning for the others to follow, in between coughs.

Borimer stomps his way back out of the smoky room.

Flint follows the others out of the room but remarks "Let's make sure the door remains unlocked...I have an idea for using the other golem if it's still in working condition"

"So we're just going to let that room burn? Fine then, but what about the door on the other side? I didn't get a chance to look at it or open it up. For that matter, where should be go now? South? West? Flint? Kahan?

"Well we need to let the fire burn itself out...unless you want to choke to death on the smoke?" Flint coughs as if to emphasize the point. "I'd like to investigate it further as well, but we don't have much choice right now.  In the mean time we can check these other doors...." Flint indicates the other two doors in this hallway

"One's as good as another I suppose."

Borimer listens at the west door and, if nothing untoward is heard, opens it.

"If you think it will help, I can create a large volume of water. I have no idea how that will react with the other things in the room, though." Kahan mentions.

"No, what's done is done." Flint points out that Borimer is already on the move.  "Let's just follow Borimer's lead....by the time we get back here hopefully the fire will be out...it's just some bones and some old clothing...hopefully it won't burn too long." Flint moves to back up Borimer at the west door

"I'd feel better if we put out the fire first. The last thing I want to do is find out we can't go this way because the fire is spreading or something silly like that. Kahan, please. Such a simple matter to avoid complications later on..."

"I will gladly cast the spell, but how will we get it into the room? I cannot cast in there due to the smoke, and the spell will simply create a large volume in the air if I do not have somewhere to put it." he explains, looking around at the others to see if they have some sort of bucket.

Borimer begins stomping out the fire.  He gets it out but the smoke is still heavy, so you leave the door open to air out the room.

OOC: The fire's not THAT big, so he could stomp it out easy enough.  I was on a business trip or would have addressed that sooner.

As you let the room air out, you go to the room to the west.  The door there is similarly locked with a Gnomish lock, but Malissin successfully picks the lock and you open the room to the west.

OOC: I assumed he would do this, so this was to save time.

This room (#27) is a large storage area.  Three large casks are on wooden stands against the west wall, and other crates and drawers are in here, as well as two barrels.  Because the door was locked, it appears to have been undisturbed.


This message was last edited by the GM at 20:21, Tue 25 Sept 2012.

Caskets as in coffins? Or as in boxes?

Kahan walks up carefully and inspects the crates, wondering if they are opened or contain anything other than air.

Sorry, I typed the wrong word.  I meant to say "casks," just as shown in the picture (i.e., very large barrels that hold liquid).

Borimer keeps watch from the doorway, always wary of the ever-impending ambush by the snake woman.  Or the death knight. Or the horde of demons. Or...

Malissin will start searching through the decks and drawers looking for shinies to loot.

In the drawers are food products.  Some are salted and preserved jerky, jarred fruits, and bottles of clear liquid.  Some have rotted away.  You can only assume that this was abandoned at the time of the mass exodus from the temple (after it was "cursed" by the gods, as they claimed), and slightly before the gnome's death.  Based on the rot in some of the products, you can assume that was between one and two years ago (not counting the 1000 years you traveled back in time).

Of the preserved materials, you can scavenge about 30 total days worth of food (for 1 person, less if divided).

In the casks is likely either some drinkable liquid or water.  There are knobs on the end if you want to see what is in them.

"Mmm, grog!"

Borimer works one of the knobs in search of something refreshing.

The casks contain:

1 cask contains wine
1 cask contains water
1 cask contains ale

"Ahh, now that's not bad."

Borimer gulps down some ale before refilling his own waterskin with the same.  He waits for the others to do the same if needed.

"Now let's see about that other door, eh?"

Borimer goes to the south door at the end of the hallway and listens for any sounds.  If it seems clear, he will open the door.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:05, Wed 26 Sept 2012.

I should mention that each cask is enough liquid to sustain one person for 10 days (30 days total).  The casks themselves are very heavy, though they can be lifted by two strong (3 weaker) men to be moved or rolled somewhere, or put in a place where they can be stored more permanently.

Would the casks fit inside of the Portable Hole with it's current contents, plus perhaps the crates of food?

Kahan pulls out the portable hole from his coin pouch and opens it up on the floor, preparing to put the foodstuffs inside so they can eat them later. If the casks will fit inside, he begins making room for them in the hole after hopping in himself.

Malissin puts on his best incredulous look.

"Even if you roll it in, how do you get it out, or are you just going to tap it in the hole?"

Yes, that's what I was kind of hinting at, though Malissin makes a good point.

You put the casks in the hole with some effort.

with a 19 strength borimer can make a strength check to get them out, couldn't he?

Once the barrels are taken care of Malissin will go back to the corridor to the last remaining door and crack it open.

So Malissin is cracking the door in room 29 and Borimer's opening the one in the south hall?

Borimer:  "A new 59 gallon oak barrel weighs about 120 lbs when empty. 600 lbs when full of wine."  So these weigh about 600 pounds.  I think even with 19 strength it would take at least two people, but it depends on how full the barrels are.

if malissin is cracking the door before borimer moves to the south door, then borimer will go back and guard malissin. if borimer is first, then he continues as planned.

we may have to drink down the barrels to a carryable weight... ;)

Once we kill Esylia, I'll be fine with getting a bit drunk. ;)


Kahan folds up the portable hole after climbing out, following after Borimer and Malissin into the new room.

Borimer and Malissin are opening the same door. I figured Borimer would be busy with the casks so Malissin as scout would do the door.

But if Borimer wants to take lead I have no problems hiding behind the meat shield :D

You open the door to the south, finding an alchemist's laboratory (Room 28).



An alchemist's workbench stands in the northeast corner, and an altar rests against the south wall.  The workbench has a cabinet underneath it.  Neither it nor the altar appear to have been used in quite some time.

In addition to the northern door you just entered, there is a door to the west and a door to the east.

Malissin will check the workbench and altar for traps before opening up the cabinet.

"It looks like our fiendish friend hasn't made it into this section of the dungeon yet."

Borimer moves to the west door and listens for any sounds beyond, his eyes darting  back and forth from the entrance to the east door and back again.

"It doesn't seem she has, but I still don't like it...something about this room doesn't feel right."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:16, Fri 28 Sept 2012.

Malissin gestures towards the altar.

"I'm not a big fan of priestly...stuff. Messing with the divine, even accidentally leads to far worse problems. I'm not going anywhere near that altar."

OOC: To Malissin: Except to check the altar for traps, right?  Keep in mind that checking for traps and searching are two different things.  He can check for traps without disturbing the altar, but probably would need to disturb it to search it.

OOC2:  I did not mean to imply that Esylia had not been here, merely that no worship or workshop activities had been performed.

Malissin finds no traps.  He opens the cabinet.  There are two jeweled boxes in the cabinet.  Both are open and empty.  There are some other alchemist supplies, including glass vials, but they seem to have been smashed or shuffled around, as though someone was looking for something and just pushed them aside haphazardly.

Kahan will inspect the altar without touching anything, trying to figure out why it was there.

It looks like a typical altar to the God of Alchemy.  It is a simple altar, just a long flat horizontal slab of stone about 4 feet across and 2 feet deep, atop an unornamental column of stone that is about 18 inches in diameter.

Seeing that the altar really isn't that interesting, Kahan looks over the alchemist's supplies, looking to see if there is anything salvageable that he could use.

Flint looks around to see if any of the alchemy supplies might be usable for any usable spell components. "It'd be great if we could get those gems before she does...but I doubt it'll be this easy.L

OOC: Sorry guys, been busy the past couple days, but I have been keeping up on the posts at least.

OOC: Nope, Malissin is not going near the altar. Call it a personality quirk but he doesn't go near religious stuff. Not unless someone forces him and it had better be life or death :D

He'll do what he can from across the room ;)

The alchemist's supplies have unfortunately been all messed up, mixed around, and sifted through with someone trying to look for something in all of that.  You can only guess that it is a missing code.

"It looks like something was ripped off of that box. What, I cannot tell, however." Kahan mentions, picking up the box and looking it over.

A tiny corner of a piece of parchment falls out, smaller than the size of your thumbnail.  Inspecting it, you find that it seems partially black at one end like it survived a fire.

PM

Borimer walks over to the altar and visually examines it.

"Look at this...the top of the altar.  Its hanging more to the right than the left. I bet-"

He reaches out and attempts to removes the top of the altar.

Borimer tries to move the top of the stone on the altar.  It is heavy, but his strength is enough to handle it.  The vertical column of stone underneath is hollow, and there is an unopened jewel box in there that matches the two empty ones in the alchemist workshop area.

"Nice going Borimer.  This must be what our 'redecorator' was looking for..." Flint reaches carefully in to remove the jeweled box and then hands it to  Kahan.

Malissin suddenly perks up from the back.

"Borimer, bring out some of that wine. I bet there's more to this message..."

With Borimer's help, Malissin will splash some wine on the letter he retrieved.

Kahan takes the box from Flint and curiously looks it over before trying to open it up.

Borimer retrieves his wineskin and hands it over to Malissin before resuming his watch near the entrance to the altar room.

Harak also examines the box to see if there is anything on it that is of interest, or if it is locked.

Putting wine on the corner of the parchment reveals the code:



NOTE: The above is the original picture.  The newly revealed full code on the bottom is:


792348918392
Allevian Crystal Cave


The jeweled case opens up.  Inside is a folded piece of parchment.  On it is written:

Allevian Ocean Atoll
624-789-999
743698224966

EDIT:  The edge of the parchment appears slightly black from being scorched in a fire or something.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:02, Wed 03 Oct 2012.

Malissin thanks Borimer for the wine and shows the note around,

"Crystal caves sound nice..."

Made slight edit at bottom.

Borimer gulps down some of the well-aged vino before putting away the wineskin.

"Allevia would be real nice right about now."

"Heh, yeah.  All we need are the two missing gems....  Towards that end we should get moving again."

Malissin will check the west door for traps before carefully opening it. As usual he keeps his eyes cast at the floor before slowly scanning upwards.

No traps are found on the door.  The western room is another winch room (33c).

The winch is at the center of the room.  On the northern wall, directly opposite the winch, is a strange device carved into the wall.  It has two numbers in it, which are currently set at "73."  Apparently, turning the winch will change the numbers.



A chest is broken on the floor in the south area, and its contents have been looted.

You also see broken pieces of statue that resemble parts of the body.  Apparently, Esylia trapped, turned to stone, and destroyed another of the temple workers or one of Lumen's men in this location.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:03, Wed 03 Oct 2012.

"I'll check the door in the other room."

Borimer goes to the east door in room 29 and listens for any sounds beyond. If clear, he opens it.

"Maybe this was the source of the screaming we heard? The more I see, the more I want to put a blade right between those cursed eyes of hers."

"No, the screaming is coming from an old man who knows how the Ark works. Esylia is torturing him to try to get him to tell her how to leave, but so far he has yet to answer her, unless she finally got him to talk and is actually not here. I somehow doubt it though, because it seems she has been here for a very long time." Kahan answers as he follows into the winch room, looking over the chest to see if anything might have been missed.

Malissin throws on a dark grin at Kahan's comment.

"Well, maybe we can go back in time even farther and start carving warnings into the walls."

He pauses a bit, realizing how grim the subject of his joke was.

"Sorry, I...I'm just having a hard time dealing with all of this. Time travel, a crazy medusa, you guys talking about the end of the world, getting chased by a lich king...it's all a bit much."

He pauses, chewing over his words. It's obvious that he's not a very strong speaker nor is he comfortable speaking his mind. Finally he seems to decide on what to say.

"Thanks...for helping me. Given how lost I am and how you seem to have a good grasp of things, I hope you don't mind if I continue to tag along. I suddenly get the feeling that I have nothing to go back for...that I'll never see anyone I know ever again."

Borimer grins.

"You're welcome to join us, we need all the help we can find to fight off our ever-increasing list of enemies.  Got a lot of 'em, actually..."

"Luckily most of them aren't smart enough to find out where we went. The only ones that really worry me are Esylia and Tarimar, although I don't see how he could know we were here." Kahan stated with a smirk, looking back to Borimer. "That death knight is going to be fun when we get back though. Wonder if he'll follow us to Allevia." he muses aloud, looking over the room some more to see if there were any clues.

Flint stands mumbling to himself about Crystal Focus rooms and numbers.

He then walks up to Kahan and comments "I think we will find the upper Crystal Focus Room through that door..." Flint gestures to the eastern door in room 28.

"It's directly above that topsy-turvy room (What did the ghost call it?  The 'Venue Ark'?) downstairs.  I'd like to get a look at the display there to see if any of these numbers make any kind of sense with the winch rooms and the crossroads (or 'Time') ark.  Somehow these settings have to correlate to each other and we'll have to figure it out once we have the missing gems for the 'Time' Ark."

Turning to Mal, Flint asks "Mal, can you please check this eastern door for traps?  I'd like to check the room on the other side."

Mal nods and follows Flint's command, checking the designated door for traps.

"You know, while we're doing this perhaps we should set traps of our own. Something to alert us where Esylia is? Something simple like tripwires and vases. That way we know if she tries sneaking up behind us."

Mal and Flint head over to room 28 to inspect the eastern door for traps while Kahan and the others are in the winch room inspecting the winch and broken chest and Borimer is listening at and then opening the eastern door in room 29.

There does not appear to be anything left near the chest.  Esylia has gutted what she can.

Borimer doesn't hear anything at room 29 and opens the door.  To his dismay, he finds that this door is trapped with another of those exploding ball booby traps.  The instant the door is opened, the ball falls at his feet in the doorway.  (Saving throw: Critical miss.)  Borimer tries to catch the ball but he is too late and not quite close enough.  It falls at his feet, exploding.  (14 hp dmg.)

Malissin finds a similar trap at room 28.  He is able to easily disarm it and collect one of the exploding balls.  Two new rooms are exposed:



(Due to time limitations right now, I will give you details in a separate post of the two rooms, but go ahead and react to the explosion, etc.)

Malissin is expecting the explosive ball that he had acquired when he hears the explosion. Looking around, he quickly notes that Borimer appeared to have wandered off on his own.

"What the...Borimer? Borimer? Are you ok!?"

Malissin draws his weapon and rushes towards the sound of the explosion.

Hearing the explosion, Flint winces at the sound.

"I'm betting that's Borimer...can anyone say 'Bull in a china shop'?"

Flint glances around quickly for the 12 digit display that is sure to be in this room, makes a mental note of it, and rushes back to where the explosion came from.

Borimer wipes the remains of his eyebrows from his forehead while waving away the smoke that still rises past his face, wincing at the pain the entire time.  He blinks at Malissin.

"Guess I coulda let you check out the door first...appropriate skill sets and all that..."

As if in response to the explosion, the door to the east of room 30 opens.  Caught offguard (saving throw missed), Borimer looks up just in time to see a set of eyes staring at him that transfix him.  After only a moment, he realizes he is not just transfixed by their beauty or ugliness -- and he can't tell which applies here -- but he is transfixed because his body is turning to stone.  It happens so quickly, he sees the pair of eyes fade in the darkness.



Borimer has been turned to stone.

Malissin approaches but averts his gaze just in time.  (Saving throw made.)

The door to the east immediately slams shut again.

Malissin screams in rage and charges across the room, keeping his eyes carefully averted to the ground.

"SHE'S HERE! SHE JUST TURNED BORIMER TO STONE! QUICK HURRY!"

Malissin will charge noisly across the room but then make a nimble leap to the side of the door and attempt to move quietly and hide in the shadows. The hope is that Esylia will open the door again to hit Mal with her gaze attack so then Mal can stab to the side into the doorway without ever being exposed to her gaze.

*...*

Malissin runs to the east but the door does not open.

OOC 1: Didn't one of us (Kahan?) have a vial of stuff to use for this situation? (ie - to 'unstone' Borimer)

Flint moves quickly to the golem control room [OOC: room 29] and calls out to Mal "Is she in the room with you Mal, or in the next room.....I mean is it safe to enter?"

OOC: Yes, Kahan has the vials given to him by Syrissa.  And Borimer had a couple of really bad saving throw rolls...

"She's in the next room."

Kahan quickly reaches into his pack, seemingly without looking, and pulls out two of the vials, handing them both to Flint as he rushes past the stone statue. "We must hurry if we are to catch Esylia." he states hurriedly, pulling his shield off of his back before opening the door, holding it out in front of him and rushing in, eyes scanning the ground below his shield, looking for either a tail or one of those explosive balls.

Flint takes the two proffered vials and packs one away.  He then moves quickly to Borimer and uses the other vial to bring him back to the land of the living.

OOC: I was wondering why there was so much silence...and then figured out that I was supposed to do something ;-)

OOC: Also, I was out of town on a business trip.

As some run past Borimer, Flint stops to unstopper the vial and pour the liquid on Borimer.

Kahan and Malissin open the door and find themselves in the three level, neverending hole room.  You are now on the red level (20c).  Like the other rooms marked 20, it has the same diagram and three bowls.

Esylia is nowhere in sight.  There is a door to the south as well as where you stand on the west side.



Borimer turns back to flesh.  You have one vial of stone to flesh remaining.

Borimer lurches forward when his flesh returns to normal, a litany of foul curses flowing past his lips until his sight finally returns.  He grins at Flint.

"Thanks friend."

The warrior's eyes harden.

"And now I'm going to make that snake-wench-rutting dog of a creature pay the final price..."

Flint answers Borimer "Yes, well, try to do it without getting stoned next time...we are short on these vials."

Flint gives the room a good once over.....OOC: It looks like there is another 'ark' device here?  Is it missing anything?  What is it set to (numbers)?

Now that things have calmed down, you have a chance to look more closely at the two rooms you just opened up.

ROOM 30

Standing in the middle of this room is what appears to be a duplicate of the crystal
globe device in area 16. Quick inspection, however, reveals a number of important differences. This device has no mountings for crystals.  Instead, it has twelve clear gems mounted in recesses on the golden ring, six on either side of a set of twelve wheels mounted side by side with numbers painted on them (like an
odometer).

Each of the twelve gems is inset more like a button than a removable or stationary piece but appears to be removable.  A band of wire is mounted over the wheels, apparently indicating the number beneath, just like the transfinite repeater displays in the crystal focus rooms.

The current number showing on the device is:  528373567447.

The image inside the globe is of a 50-foot-cubic area with a strange device in its center. Doors and stairs exit the area at bizarre angles and directions. You realize you are looking into the room you caught a brief glimpse of that the undead creatures attacked you through.  (Area 34.)

This time, however, there are other creatures milling about in there.  Their features are not distinct due to the nature of the cloudy globe, but you guess that they are various types of demons or imps.  One of them moans, and you can hear the sound of the moan as if being called through a long pipe.

ROOM 32(f)

Room 32(f) is another crystal focus room.  In this room, the crystal focus device is pointing from the ceiling down toward the floor.  It also has a transfinite repeater display.  The number on the display is 528373567447.

Harak enters the room with the globe and sees what happens when he takes out the first gem.

"I don't think we should touch that, actually. That room looks like somewhere I'd rather not end up, and if these gems work like the one that sent us here, they might just teleport us into that room. Perhaps we should come back here later when we know more about this place." the priest states before Harak has the chance to touch the gems, not stopping him if he still wishes to. "Malissin, can I see that explosive sphere you managed to save from that last trap? Perhaps we could use it as sort of a bait to get Esylia to come towards us. She could think we sprung one of her traps, when in reality we are setting one for her."

Harak pauses at Kahan's wise words.  Then he touches the globe to see if anything happens.  If nothing happens, he still removes the first gem, saying, "Stand back" and wincing as he does so.

Flint backs away from Harak in case he explodes or something and comments "Perhaps, rather than removing the crystal, you might try twisting one to see if the numbers change"

"Kahan, I wonder if we can set this device to those numbers (Allevian Ocean Atoll - 743698224966) and see what happens...."

Harak goes to the globe device and inspects it.  The gems do not move or rotate in any way.  They are inset in a roughly octagon shape.  However, they can be easily removed, just like the gems in the lower Time Ark.

As Harak goes to remove the leftmost gem, he finds that it sinks in a little like a button.  The scene in the globe flashes for a moment to one of the winch rooms (rooms 33).  Then Harak removes the gem and the globe goes dark.  When he removes the gem, the numbers in the transfinite repeater immediately go to:  000000000000.

"I didn't realize you were so adept at making traps, but here. Please be careful not to break it."

He pauses, thinking.

"Perhaps we could lure her into a dark room, one where we cannot see her vile gaze. Cloaked in darkness I could sneak up and slam the crown on her head, turning enemy into ally, hopefully. If this crown turned a noble leader into a mad king, perhaps it will do the opposite?"

"Honestly, I just want to see how it works, and perhaps figure out where it came from. The trap idea was more of an idea that I was just voicing for approval, not something I was going to do. I'd more than likely blow myself up." Kahan corrects, taking the ball and carefully turning it over in his hands, trying to figure out how it worked. "I still do not believe that the crown would work so... instantaneously as we would like. When King Krusark put the crown on, he didn't immediately turn into an elf-hating abomination, if memory serves correct. It is likely a slow process that would barely benefit us in the short-term." he explained, shrugging. "If you still wish to try, then be my guest, but know this. We only have one vial of stone to flesh left, and if it comes down to it, I would rather use it on one of my companions than on a foolish elf who followed us here, also luring a lich after us. So do be careful." he added very bluntly, eyes never peeling from the orb as he inspected it.

OOC: Too bad Grizz is dead.  You'll recall he had a nonweapon specialty in creating traps based on his fisherman experience.

The orb essentially has a finger-width column that can be pushed in or out.  Your best guess is that by pushing it in, it "sets" the orb to explode on impact.  But it can be pushed back in to "unset" it.  Regardless, you are pretty sure it is volatile even in the "unset" state and not something you want to be playing "hot potato" with.

Borimer talks in low tones to avoid attracting unwanted attention.  "Luring her into a trap's a good idea if the crown wouldn't work, and a dark room sounds like the right place to do it. I can fight in the dark almost as good as in the day, so maybe I would make good bait.  If we set off the sphere and I cry out in pain, then she may come to investigate if she thinks everyone else has left my corpse behind. I surprise her, and then everyone else jumps in to finish it."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Thu 11 Oct 2012.

Your characters would have noticed that she does seem to be carrying some sort of independent light source for herself.

"The more I think about it, the more I remember something around her neck, a lighted gem of some sort.  Darkness might not work unless we disable it first."
Borimer considers the situation and shakes his head.  "Well, how about blinding her when she first attacks, regardless of the light conditions?  Maybe one of you spellcasters could blind her with a spell...?"

"You guys and that dumb crown....it'd simpler to just stuff a bag over her head and then kill her.  Why complicate things?"

Flint turns to the door to the north in room 30.  "Mal could you check this door for me please?  It's probably just another winch room, but it's worth a look at least."

Malissin will proceed as instructed, checking the door for traps and then slowly and carefully peeking through the door by averting his gaze towards the floor and then scanning (slowly) upwards.

"Maybe, just maybe, it would be nice to resolve this without resorting to more violence. If there is a peaceful resolution to be had I think it would be decent to at least consider it. If you do not believe the crown will work and will put us in danger, so be i."

"Have to admit, I'm liking Flint's idea about baggin' and killin'. No more turning men into rocks, no more exploding glass balls, and we can get out of this place for good."

Laying a hand on Mal's shoulder, Flint comments "I understand your concern, but she's killed many of our friends either direectly or through her actions just since we came here.  Syrissa, Edmure, Naj, Grizz and many more have fallen just for us to get this far.  Even if we figure out how all this" Flint motions to the ark device "works and we manage to escape to somplace else, what's to stop her coming after us and creating new trouble wherever we go?  In addition, Kahan is right...the crown would take far too long to work against her, so we have to do something more direct."

"I do not know about you, Malissin, but I know when I am given the choice of either destroying an evil being and letting it live, I always choose destruction as long as it does not harm any innocent beings. Esylia is a corrupt, insane, evil monster who needs to be put to death. Even if the crown works, you would have to tie me up so that I would not kill her myself." Kahan replies, obviously getting a little upset about the whole idea of not killing the gorgon. "I can cast a darkness spell which should nullify all lights within it. The question is if Esylia's light source is magical enough to overcome my spell, which it might be."

Harak replaces the gemstone, waits to see what happens, and then presses on the second gemstone.

He listens to the conversations of the others and says, "Evil or not, we fight in self defense.  Not only does she seek to destroy us, does she not carry the gems we need for the Time Ark?  Won't we be destroyed with the world if we don't get them from her one way or another?"  He returns his face to its silent brooding under the cowl.

Harak replaces the gem, and the numbers slowly rotate back to the number 528373567447.  The globe again shows the demons in the central room.

Harak pushes on the second gemstone, and as he pushes it, the globe shows him another of the winch rooms.

Opening the door to the north (after finding no traps) shows that it is indeed another winch room (33f).  The two numbers showing on the wall are 47.

"Let's try something" Flint walks up to the winch and trys turning it.  Ideally he wants to turn it until the number in this room reads 66.  He then returns to [OOC: room 30] to check what the resulting change is on the 'venue ark'.

Harak begins touching all the gems to see what pictures show up in the globe.

Borimer patiently keeps watch while keener minds wrestle with the secret of the Ark.

Flint begins turning the winch, and the last set of numbers begins changing in both the winch room and the globe room (30).

Meanwhile, Harak touches the gems.  The six gems on the left, when pressed, turn the picture in the globe to various winch rooms.  The one closest to the wheels/numbers (6th gem) shows the room with Flint in it, showing Flint turning the winch.  The sounds of Flint straining as he turns the winch can also be heard through the globe.

The right side gems, when pushed, show you the various crystal focus rooms.

When Harak pushes the fourth gem of the crystal focus rooms, you see a sight that makes you freeze in place.  A serpentine tail, and a head full of snakes on a woman's body are moving across the room from one door to another.  She seems large, at least 7 feet tall, plus the stabilizing tail behind her.

Mal shudders at the sight and points towards the pictures.

"Does anyone recognize that room? If we can't tell which room from which then perhaps we should start marking them so we can quickly find her. If this is the only crystal ball room then we should secure it. Knowing where she is and preventing her from doing the same seems vital to survival."

He pauses, looking carefully at the viewing screen again.

"Does anyone know if her gaze will work through here?"

OOC: What Mal is really worried about is whether that room is 32f and this means that the gorgon is working her way back to take them from behind. If so, he'll rush to put the exploding globe trap on 29 -> 30 doorway, altering the trigger from the original trap, something like "if the original trap is disarmed, then this trap is triggered" kind of thing if possible.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:31, Mon 15 Oct 2012.

Borimer struggles to pull anything from recent memory, but this alien place had played tricks on his mind in the past and so his memories were suspect.

"Marking them is a good idea, but our time seems to be running short."

Kahan looks into the globe to see if they can, from their vantage point, watch the door Esylia seems to be heading towards. "Did we even pass a crystal focus room on this floor?" he inquires.

OOC: Sorry, guys, the fault is mine for not being more descriptive.  I was heading out on a business trip (just got back) and wanted to make sure I got another post in.

As to the Crystal Focus rooms, you can tell which gem goes to which rooms to some extent as follows (pushing gems left to right):

Crystal Focus Rooms:

Gem1:  Room 32a (You can tell this because it is pointing up from the ground)
Gem2:  Room 32b (You can tell because it only has two doors in the room)
Gem3:  (Unknown, probably unexplored.)
Gem4:  Room 32d (You can tell by the three doors, as well as the carnage left from the battle with the undead)
Gem5:  (Unknown, probably unexplored.)
Gem6:  Room 32f (You can tell because it comes out of the ceiling)

Winch Rooms

Gem1:  Room 33a (You can tell because it has the short hallway to the secret door)
Gem2:  Room 33b (you can tell by the single door opposite the winch)
Gem3:  Room 33c (You can tell by the broken chest)
Gem4:  Unknown, not explored
Gem5:  Unknown, not explored
Gem6:  Room 33f (You can tell because Flint was in there.)

OOC:  I will urge you to refrain from metagaming to the extent possible, though your characters can probably figure out what the other gems go to.

Esylia was going through the crystal focus room in room 32d, the one with the carnage from the undead.  It appears that she was moving from the room with the infinite teleportals (let's just call it the "elevator room" to make it simple) and through the south door.

So you don't have to flip back and forth, here are the updated maps again:
LEVEL ONE

The arrow by #18 references the area where the wall had collapsed in the future time before you traveled back.


LEVEL TWO




LEVEL THREE

Borimer clenches and unclenches his fist that grips Chianta's ivory hilt, no brilliant lights going off in his head to illuminate how to track the beast.

Harak says, "We could have someone up here checking the rooms for her crossing, and if she crosses a room we can get to, then we chase her down from there.  We know now she's in the south side of the building, one floor down, so that gives us some idea unless she gets on the move again.  But these rooms don't all interconnect, so she'd be hard pressed to sneak around us." HIs voice trails off as he considers.

After adjusting the winch in (room 33f) to read '66' Flint moves to rejoin the rest of the group (in room 30).  "Mal can you check if the Golem control room (room 29) is smoke free yet?  I'd like to try using the other Golem to perhaps trap or corner our enemy"

"A golem can't be turned to stone, is that what you're thinking? I like it."

Mal will follow orders and check on the golem control room.

Room 29 is free of smoke.

The control unit controls the statue in Room 2.  To control it will require a dexterity and wisdom check once per room (or per round if there is combat).  Failure will have varying consequences.

The statue is large and may not easily fit in many spots.  It cannot perform fine dexterity actions but with a successful additional check (as above) may perform larger gross motor tasks such as moving the winches.

Tapping the side of his nose Flint winks at Mal and says "Yeah, you got the idea.  Even if we just maneuver her into a room and block the door with our statuesque friend, we would at least know for sure where she is."

[OOC: I am out of town tomorrow and all weekend, so this will be my last post until Monday.  Sorry for any inconvenience.]

Kahan follows after Malissin, looking over the controls to see if there is an 'on' switch of some sort.

OOC: Does it seem that Wisdom would be more handy in working the golem than Dexterity? Also, would it be possible for two people to command the golem at the same time? If so, Kahan would gladly help Mal in working the golem, as the rogue likely has a much higher Dex score than 8, while Kahan's 17 Wis would come in handy.

[OOC: Sneaking in one last post instead of packing.....no one tell my wife!!]

Flint follows along behind Kahan.  Once in the control room he points out the controls to Mal and Kahan. "From what I can remember, the control set on the Left is for the Golem we killed.  The set on the right is for a different Golem...probably the one downstairs on the first level we came in on.  If memory serves, the main dial here" Flint grabs the main dial "can be set to Off, Guard, and Manual." Flint turns the dial to Manual. "It was set to Off, but now is on Manual"

"These levers have movements listed such as right, left, back, forward," Flint waves his hand over the levers "while these buttons say things like climb, jump, hit left, hit right, kick, stomp, and so forth." Flint points out all the buttons.

[OOC: I have a 17 Dex, but a low Wis....would be nice if we had someone with both.  Anyway, have a great weekend folks.]
This message was last edited by the player at 05:45, Fri 19 Oct 2012.

Borimer eyes the controls while envisioning the golem stomping the medusa.

"If it helps, it may be me and Mal that are the quickest."

[have fun flint; borimer has a 19 dex]

"Oh, I'm definitely the quickest, but it requires planning which is the problem. You see the time delay? I flick the switch, but he doesn't move until a little while later. You need to plan ahead, punch where the opponent will be instead of where they're at. I'm...ok at that kind of thing. Definitely not up to Kahan's strategic thinking but if we can't both work on it then I can try and run it."

Mal will take the controls and try and follow Kahan's directions to see if the two of them can get the golem working smoothly.

OOC: 20 Dex, 11 wis. If anyone has a better wis score then that it might be worthwhile to defer. Having a 20 might mean I auto-pass the dex check but if I'm always failing wis it might not matter. I'd rather have someone with, say 15 & 14, two average scores rather then a really high and really low.

@Heath: I hope you don't mind the fluff I threw in, it just seems to me the reason why you'd need Dex and Wis. Fast hands to flick acorss the control panel and react, but you need to think ahead and factor in the time delay which is where wisdom and strategic thinking comes into play. If that's wrong I'll edit it out.

The Dex/Wis combo is a package deal.  The reason for Dex is probably obvious, but the reason for Wisdom is that you are not used to the handling of the buttons and controls.  Theoretically, with practice the Wis requirement would go down.  But don't worry, a few fails here or there aren't going to make the thing self destruct.

There are a number of buttons and some joystick-like levers.  I won't go into detail what they all are.  If you just say what you want it to do, there might be a button or way to make it do it (with the skills checks), so long as it is not fine motor.  So attack, bend over, sweep right hand, sweep left, sweep leg, head butt, lift object, rotate wrist, etc.

Mal will attempt to move the golem from Room 2 -> Room 15. Assuming that's successful he'll continue with it to Room 16.

The statue begins to move.  At first, it lurches into a pillar (missed one roll), then Mal gets it moving and it ends up in room 16 without a problem.  It is squeaky and very heavy, so its movements aren't exactly stealthy.

"Does...what's her face...know about this room? It was locked when we got here, right? And medusa hasn't shown any real propensity for locks.

Does she know about my skill with locks, do you think? I guess what I'm driving at is that in her mind, these rooms are still locked. If we lock them then we'll be safe while we plan out our attack. We won't be able to monitor her though..."

"If we lock the east door, she can only get here from one way. The teleportal room." Kahan states, pointing to the room with the hole.

OOC: I think you mean the west door.

"I would suggest the following plan..."  Flint quickly sketches out a plan on the floor and explains "If we can place the Golem here and then spike this door closed, that would only leave her one way to come in....and she MUST return here sooner or later to use the ark.  WHEN she enters, attack with the Golem which will make her face away from the door to this room," Flint indicates room 29 "and us.  Then we can have a small window of time to attack her without worrying about her gaze (since she should be facing the Golem).  I would suggest Borimer or someone hide behind the ark so they can roll the remaining grenade(s) around it and follow up with a quick attack."

Looking up from the plan, Flint looks everyone in the eye and adds "I realize that the main danger here is that we will be trapped since she will be blocking our only exit....but we will have to confront her sooner or later...this will at least give us a decent chance."

OOC: I interject here only to avoid a waiting game.  You will recall that the time ark numbers were moving the previous night.  That was when I expected you to track her down, hopefully before she completed using it.  Instead, the party decided to take an 8 hour rest, allowing her to complete her programming and use the ark.  That is why you now see gruesome creatures in the center room (venue ark).  She now is playing a waiting game with you and will not change or use the ark again until you have dealt with the creatures in the center room.

You can deal with that information however you like.  If you rest there, I will still do a wandering monster check (1 in 20 per hour chance).
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:40, Tue 23 Oct 2012.

"What do you all think of this idea? We let the demons out of the room, and close ourselves back in this room while we let them do the hard work of finding and, hopefully killing, Esylia, all while we sit here and watch. If the demons split up, we should have no problem dispatching them." Kahan muses aloud, looking around at the others to gauge their reactions.

You hear screaming again from somewhere below.  Apparently she is torturing Androlus some more.

"That works assuming her position isn't as defensible as ours. What about that man she is torturing? Are there any other innocent people still alive here?"

OOC:  She used the Venue Ark before or after Flint changed the numbers in the winch room?

I ask only to see if changing the Venue would modify her plans....since we have control of two of the winches on this level and the venue control itself we could (in theory) change the venue ark...if not to something adventageous to us, at least to something more 'neutral' than a room full of demons. Setting loose a room full of demons would result in us having to fight them after (or worse yet, during) any fight with Esylia.

She used the ark long before Flint changed anything.  It was the previous night, so about 9 or 10 hours prior.  You can probably safely assume she will not unleash something else in the venue ark because it would just be a fight between the demons and whatever else she sets loose.

So what Flint is doing by changing numbers is pinpointing the party's location for her (at least as to which winches are being used).  You can assume she will use that knowledge to her advantage.

OOC:  I think she has a pretty good idea where we are considering she stoned Borimer (ie - she didn't need my help) ;-)

Getting a sense from the group that his plan may not be to everyone's liking, Flint says "Well, I am open to suggestion as to what we should do if we feel my plan isn't going to work...."

"I have no problems with your plan, Flint, I was simply modifying it. If she wants to use the Ark against us by summoning creatures to impede us, why not use them in our favor? It would expedite the process of getting her to move around, as well." Kahan replies.

"If there's any way we can track her and kill her now, I'm for it. If we have to wait and plan an ambush, then that's good too. If I have enough time, I may be able to take her down in less than a minute, and that doesn't include anything else the rest of you do to her. Unless of course she turns me into a rock again."

[borimer can take her down in one or two rounds given some decent rolls i think *and can fight with his eyes closed]
This message was last edited by the player at 02:02, Wed 24 Oct 2012.

"I have a spell that can cause you to go blind temporarily. If I had known she was so close to us, I would have cast it on you before she turned you to stone earlier." Kahan mentions with a slight grumble, as if having missed a grand opportunity with nobody to blame but himself.

Borimer pats his friend on the back.

"It's ok, you can blind me before the next time she tries to turn me to stone."

"Actually, now that I think about it, it wouldn't be temporary, but I could reverse it with another spell. If you want me to, I can cast it now, or whenever you would like." the priest adds, smiling in spite of himself at the camaraderie that the larger man was showing, which, as of late, was rare from any members of their little hodge-podge of a group.

Harak listens to the other comments and suggestions before saying, "There is a man being tortured down there.  I don't think we can sit here and wait.  We have to go out there and draw her out or hunt her down.  We've got one more dose of that anti-stoning potion, so we can afford up to one loss.  If one person gets turned to stone, I say the others retreat then and let Borimer finish her off if he wants.  But we can't sit by and let a man get tortured.  Not on my watch."

"We don't even know where he is, let alone how to get there. How do you supposed we find him?" Kahan asks the monk.

Borimer flashes a wolfish grin.

"I'm with you Harak, just point the way and let's take care of this once and for all."

"Well, if we flip through the crystals we can at least identify where she isn't.

Or we could, you know, follow the sounds of the screams..."


OOC: Putting his words to use, Malissin will try and figure out where the man is being tortured based upon his screams.

"Well, we could still use the Golem to track her down....or try to use it to open the door to the Venue Ark as Kahan suggests."

Harak says, "As Malissin suggests, I was thinking we follow the sounds of the screams before they stop again.  We've searched a lot of this place, so eventually we have to come across him anyway."

Shrugging, Kahan motions for the others to lead the way. "Borimer, if you would like, I can cast that blindness spell on you now." he suggests.

The sounds of the torture came generally from the direction of down and to the southeast, as best you can tell.

Malissin will lead the way from their current position -> 22 -> 23 and pause there to keep listening.

As they approach, Malissin will whisper to whoever is following.

"We must be on our guard as it is possible Elysia is using this as a trap, bait to draw us into battle of her choosing. Do not open doors  as they will likely be trapped, keep your eyes down as she will likely be leering at the other side.

Kahan, you may want to cast your blinding spell on Borimer before we open any doors and have him proceed first. I can disable the traps on the door but having him going in blind should be an unexpected twist, especially as she already turned him to stone."


Once at #23 hallway Malissin will pause and again try and locate where the sound is coming from.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:14, Thu 25 Oct 2012.

Borimer takes a deep breath.

"Turn out the lights..."

To clarify:
The statue you can control is at the time ark room, which is directly below room 23 (and you can see it if you look over the balcony from room 23).  Is anyone staying behind to control it?  My assumption is that everyone is going downstairs to the second floor and the statue is staying in the time ark room (23).

Kahan casts Cause Blindess on Borimer and anyone else if they are interested. He can cast it twice today.

Kahan casts blindness on Borimer.  His sword is ready as he takes the lead.

You move down to the corner at 23.  You notice three things in particular.  First, the western door (to room 24) has been left open, whereas it was closed yesterday when you passed by.  Second, there are stairs around the corner that lead down.  And third, the torturing sounds have stopped, but they would have come from somewhere around here.

You quickly describe to Borimer what you see.

The room to the west (24) appears to be some sort of barracks.  it has a line of bunks along the north wall.

Malissin whispers to the others.
"I think she is trying to lead us someplace specific. Should we follow or try and work our way around?"

In the meantime Malissin will quickly check the entryway to room 24 for traps.

He finds no traps in the entryway to 24.  However, as he is searching, he sees a fine piece of fishing wire at the top stairs (at 23) that might trip anyone going down.

"Can you check the other door too?" Kahan requests, pointing to the door adjacent to room 24.

Malissin checks, and there do not appear to be any traps on the door east of 23.

"Borimer, if you could?" Kahan asks, helping Borimer to find the door handle so he could enter in before the others.

Did anyone (Flint?) stay behind to work the statue?  No one answered that question yet.

Borimer waits while Kahan finds the door handle for him and then pushes it open while drawing Chianta in one fluid movement.