??? room (contains gateway to teleportation platform hub) <--- this is where you arrived through that latest platform to clarify you arrived IN the platform hub. Where you blew the stairs.
Sylnora Arcana: 21
Each cabinet will take 15 minutes to open. With Velyra guiding Silthras you can do two at time. How long do you want to spend?
As some members of the party hurry off to deal with the cabinets, Syl((and whoever stays with her)) approaches the pedestal-bound orb in the room(6). Careful to avoid the lashes of violet energy crackling off the orb, she kneels down to take it a closer look at it. Through her Detect Magic, she is able to see the familiar orange glow of Conjuration magics, but there's something else tainting the color - a dark void like aura that streaks through it occasionally. Inspecting the pedestal it sits on, she can see runes somewhat similar to those that were on the teleportation platforms. Though these spell out a different kind of transportation altogether. This time around, she's able to make sense of it.
The runes read out a formula for holding open a gateway - not to another point in space, but to another plane of existence.
Running her finger along the orb, purple lightning from within the center of it connects to the point her finger sits on, following her trace. Glancing back down to the runic incantation along the pedestal, she realizes some of them are something like instructions. With a swift claw-like movement across the orb, the lashes of violet energy wink out of existence, and the portal-like gateway collapses.
The gateway itself was covering up a stone door with an archway decorated with swirling patterns carved into it. The stone door also had a carving, depicting an armored knight, head bowed in respect and hands grasping a longsword. Noting that for the others, with a different movement of her hand across the orb, the violet light flares up, and the gateway to the teleportation hub reopens.
(( Primary task here is the containers, so I'd say spend 3 of our 4 hours; the rest of the time is for getting back. Might be worth guarding both sides and checking for sounds from the pedestal room to make sure they don't break through while we work...
That should get 24 open, but we probably need to consider carrying capacity... ))
Realizing he has nothing to contribute to helping unlock the cabinets, Kal will stick with their new party member so they're not unguarded while they work. "There's more further in the ruins. Weird magic map table you might want to look at to."He says, falling silent after to let her go to work on the orb in the pedestal room. As she makes a sudden motion and the gateway to the portal room suddenly disappears his eyes go wide. He makes note of the knight depiction on the stone door before she does something else to bring the gateway back.
Impressed, he glances down at the young half-elf and says "that was unexpected. And very well done. That might come in handy for us, you can do that at will right?"
"Unless there's something else you want to explore in here, we might want to go let the others know of what you've found."
Back into the cabinet room, Usul sits down with Dib on his shoulder ((Muad was left in the Inn for safety)), pulls out his thieves' tools, cracks his knuckles, and with a grin starts to work. With Sil working hard behind him they both continue to exchange sounds of frustration, and then excitement as they open one. In most cases, Usul will open the cabinet, pull out the contents, set them in a common pile for the others to go through, and go back to work. If he spots something shiny (like the gem in the last) he'd try to pocket it while delivering the other, more historic, items ((slight of hand 21)).
Syl feels a bit of heat in her face from the unexpected praise, but feels vindicated from her earlier failure with the platform. "Just working through my nerves I guess."She says, somewhat convincingly. After taking a glance around the room and realizing there's nothing but empty pedestals, she'll shake her head. "Nothing else here. I'll trust you to lead the way to the others."
Following him to this infamous "cabinet room," she will announce to the others.
"So I can turn that gateway off. Well I can turn the orb off. It makes the gateway. That doesn't lead to anywhere near here. It leads...Somewhere else. Like not this plane of existence somewhere else."
"Congratulations on that part by the way. You were all unwitting planar travelers."
A few quick glances around the room, nervous fidgeting with her fingers, and then. "Anyway. I'll uh...Try to make myself useful some more while you all do this."
The two grave robbers esteemed members of your party go to work on opening the cabinet doors, with Velyra standing by next to Silthras with a hand on his shoulder, channeling divine guidance into him.
For the next thirty minutes they manage to open four of the locks between the two of them. They contain they following:
Silthras: 4th Cabinet Square Door 1:Previously Opened Square Door 2: Locked Square Door 3: Much like the first door opened, this contains a evenly spaced shelves. On the bottom shelf is a set of finely made clothes, themed with dark blues and silver trim. They seem to be made for a man perhaps a bit taller than Silthras. Despite the obvious age they must be, they appear to be in perfectly good shape. The middle shelf contains relatively mundane items - there are wood carvings much like the first door, but these are much better made. There are eight in total, each depicting a knight in very unique sets of armor. A holy symbol of Amah rests on this shelf: a diamond shaped amulet, with an intricate snowflake carved into it. The top shelf is entirely taken up by a fragment of what was clearly a humongous red scale. Orders of magnitude larger than the ones found in the first door. Square Door 4: Locked Wide Door 1: This door opens like a drawer, which Silthras pulls out. It continues several pieces of artwork of different styles, but all depicting what appear to be the same person throughout different points in their life. A young boy with curly, light brown hand, outfitted in simple farmer clothes. To a teenager, hair closed cut, more well defined muscles, and a set of clothes that are as simple as the farm clothes, but cleaner. Then to an adult, standing in front of a grand temple-like structure, wearing the very same clothes you found in the previous door. Wide Door 2: Locked
Usul: 13th Cabinet Square Door 1: Locked Square Door 2: Locked Square Door 3: Locked Square Door 4: Locked Wide Door 1: Much the same as the one Silthras opened, this door opens like a drawer and contains pieces of artwork. This time it is of a half-elven girl. As a young girl she is dressed in fine clothes, hinting of nobility. Into her teenage years the depictions switch to the more spartan clothing similar to the boy in the 4th cabinet, and the final pieces of art that show her adulthood match the style of formal clothing found in the door Silthras opened. Dark blue clothes, cut with traces of silver throughout. Wide Door 2: Locked
12th Cabinet Square Door 1: Nearly a carbon copy of the very first door you opened in this room. The bottom shelf is occupied by a large tome, with the exact same cover on it. The middle shelf however, contains a set of clothes that might belong to a merchant's son. Well enough - but not quite fine. There is a set of ivory dice, and a telescoping spy glass made of brass. On the top shelf is a pouch containing 8 perfectly smooth black spheres, a few large feathers of red & blue, and a shattered piece of crystal. Square Door 2: Locked Square Door 3: Locked Square Door 4: Locked Wide Door 1: Locked Wide Door 2: Locked
((Now that you have some more information, let me know how you would like to proceed with the doors))
Silthras sits back on his heels, and glances up at Velyria, "I think we may want the arcanist in here, before we proceed. Some of these things seem far more than simple baubles."
He looks over the collection of items, "It's like...like a collection of important things from someone's life. The book we read...it talked of a lineage of knights, one handing over to another." His hand runs over the clothing, admiring the material, "Do you think these might be things they owned at death, or the things they owned before they became knights?"
He looks up again at Velyra, "Keep an eye on them, I'll get the arcanist." He leaves Velyra and heads in the direction of Syl and Kal, carrying them gem and stones with him.
Smiling to their new recruit he says, "We have need of your skills...there are things in the cabinets here that scream of the arcane. A confirmation would be handy..."
Pulling the things from his cabinet and bringing it all to a big pile in the middle of the floor, Usul says, “These locks are really tricky… But look at all this cool stuff!” Then grabbing the dice and spyglass, he puts the dice into his pocket, places the spyglass on the ground and spins in to see where it stops. Once it points towards cabinet 2, he picks it up, puts it in his bag, and heads over to work on door 2.
((I’ll see what the others do. If everyone is ok to stick around and go through the things Usul will continue picking doors at random in a playful manor and then working hard on the lock))
Sylnora carefully takes the items from Silthras, crouching down to place them on the floor. "You may as well go ahead and try opening another door, this will take me a few minutes." She says, beginning the ritual for Detect Magic again. Once it's finished, she'll sort through all the items they've found so far, placing them in piles of magical and non-magical.
The sapphire glows orange with Conjuration magic, while the pouch of small black spheres have the tell-tale red aura of Evocation.
Besides the Abjuration of the locks on the cabinets, the persistent Evocation aura of the entire room, and the marble map table, nothing else in the room seems to be magical.
"Well, these two things are definitely something." Sylnora mentions, holding up the black spheres and the blue gem. If the others are going to continue spending time on the locks, she'll opt to ritual cast Identify on the two items.
"Those aren't just any knights Silthras." Velyra says, going somewhat pale at this point. "Oh hells." She hides her face in hands for a moment, massaging her temples. "We've got something severely wrong in our history. Maybe the Seven weren't just seven. Maybe seven different lineages? But there was just one invasion from the Abyss wasn't there, and then they were supposed to have left...?" The elvish woman could go round and round with questions like this all day if wanted, but there was still work to be done here.
"Fourteen cabinets...Keep opening doors." She says, passing on Guidance before grabbing the newest book they've found. Very briefly, she'll open it to check the title page. If it seems to be about a different Watcher of Amah, she'll add "we need to find all of these books. The information in them could be priceless."
Something clicks into place inside Kal's mind, and his head tilts slightly as the gears start to turn. "You used the word 'invasion.' "
"And that gateway leads to somewhere else entirely, another plane of existence you said Syl?" With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he realizes what they could be facing. "We might be out of our depth here. Do you think we're staring down another invasion? I mean...Those things, the heralds, they were destroyed in the past, right? So it can't be."
Usul: 10th Cabinet Square Door 1: The pattern becomes clear at this point, there is a tome on the bottom shelf, an assortment of childish personal effects on the middle shelf, and a smattering of "trophies" on the top shelf. Unique among the items on the top shelf is a dagger with no crossguard and an ivory bone handle. The blade is curved slightly, and the metal seems to sparkle in places. Square Door 2: Locked Square Door 3: Locked Square Door 4: Locked Wide Door 1: Locked Wide Door 2: Locked
Silthras does as Syl suggests, and returns to the cabinets. Working systematically, he concentrates on square compartments from each of the different cabinets, skipping cabinets that Usul has worked on.
"Ooo, this is nice too!" Usul says, as he trades the dagger on his belt for the new ivory handled one. Seeing the pattern Usul will concentrate on box 1 in the cabinets randomly jumping around the room, as Sil follows behind.
((we haven't opened a box 4 right? so we don't know what's in those?))
Area Refresher
this is where you arrived through that latest platformto clarify you arrived IN the platform hub. Where you blew the stairs.Sylnora Arcana: 21
Each cabinet will take 15 minutes to open. With Velyra guiding Silthras you can do two at time. How long do you want to spend?
As some members of the party hurry off to deal with the cabinets, Syl((and whoever stays with her)) approaches the pedestal-bound orb in the room(6). Careful to avoid the lashes of violet energy crackling off the orb, she kneels down to take it a closer look at it. Through her Detect Magic, she is able to see the familiar orange glow of Conjuration magics, but there's something else tainting the color - a dark void like aura that streaks through it occasionally. Inspecting the pedestal it sits on, she can see runes somewhat similar to those that were on the teleportation platforms. Though these spell out a different kind of transportation altogether. This time around, she's able to make sense of it.
The runes read out a formula for holding open a gateway - not to another point in space, but to another plane of existence.
Running her finger along the orb, purple lightning from within the center of it connects to the point her finger sits on, following her trace. Glancing back down to the runic incantation along the pedestal, she realizes some of them are something like instructions. With a swift claw-like movement across the orb, the lashes of violet energy wink out of existence, and the portal-like gateway collapses.
The gateway itself was covering up a stone door with an archway decorated with swirling patterns carved into it. The stone door also had a carving, depicting an armored knight, head bowed in respect and hands grasping a longsword. Noting that for the others, with a different movement of her hand across the orb, the violet light flares up, and the gateway to the teleportation hub reopens.
(( Primary task here is the containers, so I'd say spend 3 of our 4 hours; the rest of the time is for getting back. Might be worth guarding both sides and checking for sounds from the pedestal room to make sure they don't break through while we work...
That should get 24 open, but we probably need to consider carrying capacity... ))
Realizing he has nothing to contribute to helping unlock the cabinets, Kal will stick with their new party member so they're not unguarded while they work. "There's more further in the ruins. Weird magic map table you might want to look at to." He says, falling silent after to let her go to work on the orb in the pedestal room. As she makes a sudden motion and the gateway to the portal room suddenly disappears his eyes go wide. He makes note of the knight depiction on the stone door before she does something else to bring the gateway back.
Impressed, he glances down at the young half-elf and says "that was unexpected. And very well done. That might come in handy for us, you can do that at will right?"
"Unless there's something else you want to explore in here, we might want to go let the others know of what you've found."
Back into the cabinet room, Usul sits down with Dib on his shoulder ((Muad was left in the Inn for safety)), pulls out his thieves' tools, cracks his knuckles, and with a grin starts to work. With Sil working hard behind him they both continue to exchange sounds of frustration, and then excitement as they open one. In most cases, Usul will open the cabinet, pull out the contents, set them in a common pile for the others to go through, and go back to work. If he spots something shiny (like the gem in the last) he'd try to pocket it while delivering the other, more historic, items ((slight of hand 21)).
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Syl feels a bit of heat in her face from the unexpected praise, but feels vindicated from her earlier failure with the platform. "Just working through my nerves I guess." She says, somewhat convincingly. After taking a glance around the room and realizing there's nothing but empty pedestals, she'll shake her head. "Nothing else here. I'll trust you to lead the way to the others."
Following him to this infamous "cabinet room," she will announce to the others.
"So I can turn that gateway off. Well I can turn the orb off. It makes the gateway. That doesn't lead to anywhere near here. It leads...Somewhere else. Like not this plane of existence somewhere else."
"Congratulations on that part by the way. You were all unwitting planar travelers."
A few quick glances around the room, nervous fidgeting with her fingers, and then. "Anyway. I'll uh...Try to make myself useful some more while you all do this."
Usul Cabinet Roll: 6 9
odd square|even wide
Usul Door Type Roll #1: 3
Usul Door Type Roll #2: 4
Silthras Square Door #: 4
Usul Square Door #: 3
(( lol...the academic is conveniently distracted so we can get back to robbing the bank vault ))
The two
grave robbersesteemed members of your party go to work on opening the cabinet doors, with Velyra standing by next to Silthras with a hand on his shoulder, channeling divine guidance into him.For the next thirty minutes they manage to open four of the locks between the two of them. They contain they following:
Silthras:
4th Cabinet
Square Door 1: Previously Opened
Square Door 2: Locked
Square Door 3: Much like the first door opened, this contains a evenly spaced shelves. On the bottom shelf is a set of finely made clothes, themed with dark blues and silver trim. They seem to be made for a man perhaps a bit taller than Silthras. Despite the obvious age they must be, they appear to be in perfectly good shape. The middle shelf contains relatively mundane items - there are wood carvings much like the first door, but these are much better made. There are eight in total, each depicting a knight in very unique sets of armor. A holy symbol of Amah rests on this shelf: a diamond shaped amulet, with an intricate snowflake carved into it. The top shelf is entirely taken up by a fragment of what was clearly a humongous red scale. Orders of magnitude larger than the ones found in the first door.
Square Door 4: Locked
Wide Door 1: This door opens like a drawer, which Silthras pulls out. It continues several pieces of artwork of different styles, but all depicting what appear to be the same person throughout different points in their life. A young boy with curly, light brown hand, outfitted in simple farmer clothes. To a teenager, hair closed cut, more well defined muscles, and a set of clothes that are as simple as the farm clothes, but cleaner. Then to an adult, standing in front of a grand temple-like structure, wearing the very same clothes you found in the previous door.
Wide Door 2: Locked
Usul:
13th Cabinet
Square Door 1: Locked
Square Door 2: Locked
Square Door 3: Locked
Square Door 4: Locked
Wide Door 1: Much the same as the one Silthras opened, this door opens like a drawer and contains pieces of artwork. This time it is of a half-elven girl. As a young girl she is dressed in fine clothes, hinting of nobility. Into her teenage years the depictions switch to the more spartan clothing similar to the boy in the 4th cabinet, and the final pieces of art that show her adulthood match the style of formal clothing found in the door Silthras opened. Dark blue clothes, cut with traces of silver throughout.
Wide Door 2: Locked
12th Cabinet
Square Door 1: Nearly a carbon copy of the very first door you opened in this room. The bottom shelf is occupied by a large tome, with the exact same cover on it. The middle shelf however, contains a set of clothes that might belong to a merchant's son. Well enough - but not quite fine. There is a set of ivory dice, and a telescoping spy glass made of brass. On the top shelf is a pouch containing 8 perfectly smooth black spheres, a few large feathers of red & blue, and a shattered piece of crystal.
Square Door 2: Locked
Square Door 3: Locked
Square Door 4: Locked
Wide Door 1: Locked
Wide Door 2: Locked
((Now that you have some more information, let me know how you would like to proceed with the doors))
Silthras sits back on his heels, and glances up at Velyria, "I think we may want the arcanist in here, before we proceed. Some of these things seem far more than simple baubles."
He looks over the collection of items, "It's like...like a collection of important things from someone's life. The book we read...it talked of a lineage of knights, one handing over to another." His hand runs over the clothing, admiring the material, "Do you think these might be things they owned at death, or the things they owned before they became knights?"
He looks up again at Velyra, "Keep an eye on them, I'll get the arcanist." He leaves Velyra and heads in the direction of Syl and Kal, carrying them gem and stones with him.
Smiling to their new recruit he says, "We have need of your skills...there are things in the cabinets here that scream of the arcane. A confirmation would be handy..."
Pulling the things from his cabinet and bringing it all to a big pile in the middle of the floor, Usul says, “These locks are really tricky… But look at all this cool stuff!” Then grabbing the dice and spyglass, he puts the dice into his pocket, places the spyglass on the ground and spins in to see where it stops. Once it points towards cabinet 2, he picks it up, puts it in his bag, and heads over to work on door 2.
((I’ll see what the others do. If everyone is ok to stick around and go through the things Usul will continue picking doors at random in a playful manor and then working hard on the lock))
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Sylnora carefully takes the items from Silthras, crouching down to place them on the floor. "You may as well go ahead and try opening another door, this will take me a few minutes." She says, beginning the ritual for Detect Magic again. Once it's finished, she'll sort through all the items they've found so far, placing them in piles of magical and non-magical.
Besides the Abjuration of the locks on the cabinets, the persistent Evocation aura of the entire room, and the marble map table, nothing else in the room seems to be magical.
"Well, these two things are definitely something." Sylnora mentions, holding up the black spheres and the blue gem. If the others are going to continue spending time on the locks, she'll opt to ritual cast Identify on the two items.
Going over the items, you find the sapphire to be an Elemental Gem, and the small spheres to be Beads of Force
"Those aren't just any knights Silthras." Velyra says, going somewhat pale at this point. "Oh hells." She hides her face in hands for a moment, massaging her temples. "We've got something severely wrong in our history. Maybe the Seven weren't just seven. Maybe seven different lineages? But there was just one invasion from the Abyss wasn't there, and then they were supposed to have left...?" The elvish woman could go round and round with questions like this all day if wanted, but there was still work to be done here.
"Fourteen cabinets...Keep opening doors." She says, passing on Guidance before grabbing the newest book they've found. Very briefly, she'll open it to check the title page. If it seems to be about a different Watcher of Amah, she'll add "we need to find all of these books. The information in them could be priceless."
Something clicks into place inside Kal's mind, and his head tilts slightly as the gears start to turn. "You used the word 'invasion.' "
"And that gateway leads to somewhere else entirely, another plane of existence you said Syl?" With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he realizes what they could be facing. "We might be out of our depth here. Do you think we're staring down another invasion? I mean...Those things, the heralds, they were destroyed in the past, right? So it can't be."
Usul:
10th Cabinet
Square Door 1: The pattern becomes clear at this point, there is a tome on the bottom shelf, an assortment of childish personal effects on the middle shelf, and a smattering of "trophies" on the top shelf. Unique among the items on the top shelf is a dagger with no crossguard and an ivory bone handle. The blade is curved slightly, and the metal seems to sparkle in places.
Square Door 2: Locked
Square Door 3: Locked
Square Door 4: Locked
Wide Door 1: Locked
Wide Door 2: Locked
Silthras does as Syl suggests, and returns to the cabinets. Working systematically, he concentrates on square compartments from each of the different cabinets, skipping cabinets that Usul has worked on.
"Ooo, this is nice too!" Usul says, as he trades the dagger on his belt for the new ivory handled one. Seeing the pattern Usul will concentrate on box 1 in the cabinets randomly jumping around the room, as Sil follows behind.
((we haven't opened a box 4 right? so we don't know what's in those?))
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM: