Matreous appears to be confused and suspicious as he ponders what Syd has said. "Three hours... one day... time flowing backward... Oh dear, yes, of course, how could I make such an elementary mistake? Thank you, large friend, for setting that straight. I think, perhaps, that I need to take some rest. My mind is not so clear as it needs to be to comprehend this place."
Matreous takes a few tentative steps toward you and as his face is illuminated more clearly in the lamp light, he does appear to be exhausted, dark circles under his eyes. After shoving the papers back in his robes, he shakes his head to himself, and mutters, "Must report to Cassandra..." Matreous then staggers abruptly forward through the portal. As he does so, you witness a flare of bright green light erupt from his hand, followed by the appearance of a a diminutive, red-skinned humanoid with a barbed tail, small horns, and leathery wings. At that moment, the portal doors swing shut, and you hear a ghastly screech followed by what sounds like Matreous screaming.
(Some points of clarification: 1) Was a member of the party carrying the book when you entered the portal? 2) Since no one asked for an Insight check on Matreous and it won't affect the story going forward, I'll tell you that despite his confused state, he was entirely sincere when stating he would return as soon as he could after consulting with Cassandra and was only interested in the knowledge held within the mansion for the purpose of furthering Cassandra's research. 3) Similarly, he definitely believed that he had only been in the mansion for two hours. 4) Good ideas about his age, but he's really just a middle-aged guy. Mid-life career change, not that uncommon during times of great upheaval, for example, during a global pandemic ;-)
(I guess actually that Cerlinde was holding the book in her hands when we said the words. Unless it was forced from there or something when the portal opened, she would still have it. We were passing it around a bit and flipping through it).
Looking at the closed doors with a bit of shock, Cerlinde says “Well, I hope he is ok. What was that creature? It seems we have but one choice- we will explore first and hopefully find a way out”.
(I guess actually that Cerlinde was holding the book in her hands when we said the words. Unless it was forced from there or something when the portal opened, she would still have it. We were passing it around a bit and flipping through it).
(Sounds good, either way would work, just wanted to know from your perspective. Cerlinde has the book! Also, I will post a map as you explore a bit to make it easier to communicate where you'd like to go. For the foyer and what you see there, refer to post #86.)
Syd will try to open the double doors, not really expecting that to work, but just in case.
Noticing that Cerlinde still has the book, he observes, "If that book is necessary to open the portal to this place, then no one back at Haven is going to come for us. We'll have to figure out a way to escape on our own."
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Cerlinde Knowledge arcana to identify the red skinned impish creature- 18
“yes. Well, Let’s explore - we can start with this level first, and then see what is upstairs? “She says. She leads the way through the door that is ajar across the hall.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Well, they've got a kitchen, we've got a cook; Cerlinde are there clues in the rest of that book?"
Ollezall will follow around the mid/back of the group, neither first nor last. Being on alert, Ollezall will be mindful of his surroundings with passive wisdom 15. I'll roll for specifics (traps, encounter, cool goodies etc.)
To Syd; " that was some good arithmetic; are you a secret genius?"
Ollezall will also look out for the strange cat. Animal handling 21 to interact and gleam information on the cats origin and purpose .
Syd guffaws, "Me? A genius? Naw, no way. It's just that Uncle Beetfreckle always used to say, 'you better come home with at least as many goats as you left with.' So, I got good at counting quickly. Also, he gave me algebra homework if I didn't do my chores to his satisfaction."
Cerlinde says “Well, thanks Syd to your Uncle for teaching you. I need some quality time with this book to figure anything out. Let’s explore for now and see what is here. I’m also curious about the cat…. “
Syd will try to open the double doors, not really expecting that to work, but just in case.
Noticing that Cerlinde still has the book, he observes, "If that book is necessary to open the portal to this place, then no one back at Haven is going to come for us. We'll have to figure out a way to escape on our own."
As Syd grips the door handles in his massive hands, he prepares to strain with all of his considerable might to force his way back to the study in Drusilla's Forest. He starts to turn them, only to find that they rotate quite easily. The doors are now fully material, with the heft one would expect of ironbound oak. They open to reveal a swirling indigo miasma hovering ten metres from the mansion on all sides. It casts an eerie hue on the walls and roof and the exterior is unnaturally silent.
Seeing that the portal is truly gone, Syd's statement hangs above the party, slowly sinking in. Is he right? If Matreous has been felled and the book is out of Cassandra's reach, are they really on their own?
As the party joins Dyumi in the room facing the foyer, they immediately recognize it as a study. The entire far wall of this room is a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. Even more books are resting on several large scarlet armchairs and small wooden tables, and there are several paintings on the walls, including a landscape scene with a large green dragon emerging from a grove of pine trees, a study of a pegasus in flight, and a portrait of a unicorn in a wooded glade.
Cerlinde ponders the glimpse she had of the creature that assaulted Matreous, but despite her wealth of knowledge, her memory is failing her at the moment. She can tell the creature was red, humanoid, had wings... the more she tries to recall its traits, the more its name seems to elude her. Maybe it will come to her later. (Sorry about that nat 1!)
Ollezall notices a fluffy black cat, curled up on the armchair placed against the right wall of the room. It seems to notice him as well, sitting up and meowing plaintively as he approaches. While petting the cat, a book sitting on the table to the right of the chair catches Ollezall's eye. It is extremely similar to The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces, having the same leather cover and image of Mordenkainen gracing its cover. On its spine is a solitary, prominent letter 'I'. (The cat will now follow Ollezall about the room, meowing occasionally and pausing by the door if you pass by it.)
Cerlinde quickly recovers from the surprise at not being able to recall the name of that particular creature when she sees all the books. As a scholar, scribe and calligrapher, books are her passion. She resists the urge to run to the shelves, but does step forward to pick up and look at the book with Mordenkainen on the cover.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
( I assume you mean the door to the room?)
Ollezall proffers the book to Cerlinde. "I can help you read celestial if you do not already know it. Hey, look I got a cat friend....." Ollezall whispers " can you check if it's actually a cat please? Looks feline to me...but I'm not an arcanist" Ollezall will smile politely.
Ollezall will inspect the bookshelf. I would like to spot and point out any significant wear on the shelves that would indicate a book has been more frequently used than the others.
Perception 15
I would also like to look for any relevant religious texts or effigies .
Religion 22.
Ollezall will also be on alert for danger ( spidey sense/passive perception 15)
Mohdrak took the events that had transpired in stride.
'A manor with a kitchen and enough space certainly is one of the better places to get stuck.' He offered merely a shrug. 'You lot work on getting us back. I'll head to the kitchen and take stock. If we're going to be here for a while, I might as well make sure we don't have to survive on hardtack and water.'
The minotaur left the others to the books and went to search for said kitchen. 'Come find me if you need some muscle.' He shouted at over his shoulder before venturing deeper into the manor.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Syd appears to wander aimlessly among the bookshelves, although in fact he is surreptitiously looking for volumes I and II of Forbidden Liasons. And, you know, clues.
Cerlinde picks up the new book that Ollezall found near the cat and flips through the pages. Oddly enough, the pages only contain the following block of text, repeated over and over.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In vel luctus nibh. Nunc elementum mauris non ex placerat facilisis. Mauris et enim non velit mollis placerat sed et ante. Nullam congue tempor magna a feugiat. Phasellus at tellus in metus ultricies semper. Integer consequat arcu quis viverra aliquet. Phasellus sit amet vulputate lorem. Duis erat massa, scelerisque ac molestie vitae, blandit at augue. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Nulla convallis eros porttitor, eleifend nisi quis, facilisis risus.
While the book does resemble The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces, it does not otherwise have that special, arcane feeling of a spellbook.
Ollezall searches the shelves, particularly focused on finding religious texts. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, he finds that, while most of the books in this study are memoirs written by Fistandia, there are a fair number devoted to the worship and history of Mystra, the goddess of magic. Reviewing a few of the memoirs, Ollezall discovers that Fistandia was a priest of Mystra, as well as a powerful mage. In exchange for Fistandia’s pious service and achievements in expanding the arts of magic, Mystra granted Fistandia the knowledge to create this permanent extradimensional mansion. (I did mean the door to the study, sorry for not being clear!)
Mohdrak exits the study, in search of the kitchen. Standing in the hallway, he can detect a faint smell of food drifting from the east. It appears that the next door in that direction, just past the staircase, is also slightly ajar. As he ponders whether to head that direction or to explore elsewhere, Mohdrak hears a meow as the black cat rubs against his legs as it passes by, heading in the direction of the presumptive kitchen. It heads into the open door that Mohdrak just saw.
Syd's surreptitious searching for more of the history of the two star-crossed lovers is successful and he discovers Vol. 1, in excellent condition no less! Reaching down to pluck the treasured novel from the shelf, he also notices what appear to be signs of wear on the same shelf in front of another text on magical portals, as though it had been selected for study by Fistandia many times. (I was absolutely going to have you find another in the series!)
Dyumi, on the hunt for goodies, discovers a bowl of black licorice. It has a light dusting of cat hair.
Dyumi pockets the licorice with glee and rushes over to Syd and Cerlinde
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely. If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
Cerlinde says “this book appears to be either in code of some sort, or a language I don’t know- or perhaps the true contents are masked with a spell”. On a whim, she starts reading the words aloud, in hopes that one was a password or something.
She then puts that book in her pack. Muttering something about studying it later, and accepts the new one from Syd… “ ahh yes- heavily used, this one, might be useful- she opens it up…”
As Syd pulls the book from the shelf and turns to hand it to Cerlinde, a loud click is heard and the set of shelves from which he pulled it recedes into the wall and slides away to the right. You can see a dimly lit staircase descending to a lower level.
There is no effect as Cerlinde reads the unknown language from the recently discovered book.
Cerlinde says “this book appears to be either in code of some sort, or a language I don’t know- or perhaps the true contents are masked with a spell”. On a whim, she starts reading the words aloud, in hopes that one was a password or something.
She then puts that book in her pack. Muttering something about studying it later, and accepts the new one from Syd… “ ahh yes- heavily used, this one, might be useful- she opens it up…”
"Ahh, I've seen something like this... It's filler. Scribes use it to 'fluff up' libraries and bookcases to give it a feeling of fullness until more Legitimate books can be acquired; or collectors need to pawn off their books and don't want to have gaps in the shelf. You can purchase these books cheap so you don't lose face by having empty shelves. My guess is they came with the mansion when it was conjured"
*Pain is love itself; fear of death is for the classroom....heh, sounds like the ramblings of a scribe that's for sure* Ollezall thinks. * How do I know what it said?* Ollezall also thinks to himself.
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Matreous appears to be confused and suspicious as he ponders what Syd has said. "Three hours... one day... time flowing backward... Oh dear, yes, of course, how could I make such an elementary mistake? Thank you, large friend, for setting that straight. I think, perhaps, that I need to take some rest. My mind is not so clear as it needs to be to comprehend this place."
Matreous takes a few tentative steps toward you and as his face is illuminated more clearly in the lamp light, he does appear to be exhausted, dark circles under his eyes. After shoving the papers back in his robes, he shakes his head to himself, and mutters, "Must report to Cassandra..." Matreous then staggers abruptly forward through the portal. As he does so, you witness a flare of bright green light erupt from his hand, followed by the appearance of a a diminutive, red-skinned humanoid with a barbed tail, small horns, and leathery wings. At that moment, the portal doors swing shut, and you hear a ghastly screech followed by what sounds like Matreous screaming.
(Some points of clarification: 1) Was a member of the party carrying the book when you entered the portal? 2) Since no one asked for an Insight check on Matreous and it won't affect the story going forward, I'll tell you that despite his confused state, he was entirely sincere when stating he would return as soon as he could after consulting with Cassandra and was only interested in the knowledge held within the mansion for the purpose of furthering Cassandra's research. 3) Similarly, he definitely believed that he had only been in the mansion for two hours. 4) Good ideas about his age, but he's really just a middle-aged guy. Mid-life career change, not that uncommon during times of great upheaval, for example, during a global pandemic ;-)
Active - Player: Sleeping Gods ---- Complete - Player: Masquerade, Teleportation Machine ---- Complete - DM: Extradimensional Spaces
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(I guess actually that Cerlinde was holding the book in her hands when we said the words. Unless it was forced from there or something when the portal opened, she would still have it. We were passing it around a bit and flipping through it).
Looking at the closed doors with a bit of shock, Cerlinde says “Well, I hope he is ok. What was that creature? It seems we have but one choice- we will explore first and hopefully find a way out”.
(Sounds good, either way would work, just wanted to know from your perspective. Cerlinde has the book! Also, I will post a map as you explore a bit to make it easier to communicate where you'd like to go. For the foyer and what you see there, refer to post #86.)
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Come join the Worlds of Pphost, a new and growing PbP community! Adventures are currently running in the world of Haven or do some role-playing!
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Syd will try to open the double doors, not really expecting that to work, but just in case.
Noticing that Cerlinde still has the book, he observes, "If that book is necessary to open the portal to this place, then no one back at Haven is going to come for us. We'll have to figure out a way to escape on our own."
Cerlinde Knowledge arcana to identify the red skinned impish creature- 18
“yes. Well, Let’s explore - we can start with this level first, and then see what is upstairs? “She says. She leads the way through the door that is ajar across the hall.
"Well, they've got a kitchen, we've got a cook; Cerlinde are there clues in the rest of that book?"
Ollezall will follow around the mid/back of the group, neither first nor last. Being on alert, Ollezall will be mindful of his surroundings with passive wisdom 15. I'll roll for specifics (traps, encounter, cool goodies etc.)
To Syd; " that was some good arithmetic; are you a secret genius?"
Ollezall will also look out for the strange cat. Animal handling 21 to interact and gleam information on the cats origin and purpose .
Syd guffaws, "Me? A genius? Naw, no way. It's just that Uncle Beetfreckle always used to say, 'you better come home with at least as many goats as you left with.' So, I got good at counting quickly. Also, he gave me algebra homework if I didn't do my chores to his satisfaction."
Cerlinde says “Well, thanks Syd to your Uncle for teaching you. I need some quality time with this book to figure anything out. Let’s explore for now and see what is here. I’m also curious about the cat…. “
As Syd grips the door handles in his massive hands, he prepares to strain with all of his considerable might to force his way back to the study in Drusilla's Forest. He starts to turn them, only to find that they rotate quite easily. The doors are now fully material, with the heft one would expect of ironbound oak. They open to reveal a swirling indigo miasma hovering ten metres from the mansion on all sides. It casts an eerie hue on the walls and roof and the exterior is unnaturally silent.
Seeing that the portal is truly gone, Syd's statement hangs above the party, slowly sinking in. Is he right? If Matreous has been felled and the book is out of Cassandra's reach, are they really on their own?
As the party joins Dyumi in the room facing the foyer, they immediately recognize it as a study. The entire far wall of this room is a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. Even more books are resting on several large scarlet armchairs and small wooden tables, and there are several paintings on the walls, including a landscape scene with a large green dragon emerging from a grove of pine trees, a study of a pegasus in flight, and a portrait of a unicorn in a wooded glade.
Cerlinde ponders the glimpse she had of the creature that assaulted Matreous, but despite her wealth of knowledge, her memory is failing her at the moment. She can tell the creature was red, humanoid, had wings... the more she tries to recall its traits, the more its name seems to elude her. Maybe it will come to her later. (Sorry about that nat 1!)
Ollezall notices a fluffy black cat, curled up on the armchair placed against the right wall of the room. It seems to notice him as well, sitting up and meowing plaintively as he approaches. While petting the cat, a book sitting on the table to the right of the chair catches Ollezall's eye. It is extremely similar to The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces, having the same leather cover and image of Mordenkainen gracing its cover. On its spine is a solitary, prominent letter 'I'. (The cat will now follow Ollezall about the room, meowing occasionally and pausing by the door if you pass by it.)
What would you like to do?
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Cerlinde quickly recovers from the surprise at not being able to recall the name of that particular creature when she sees all the books. As a scholar, scribe and calligrapher, books are her passion. She resists the urge to run to the shelves, but does step forward to pick up and look at the book with Mordenkainen on the cover.
Syd sighs. "Another library?! Jeez! Books are all well and good, but I'm itchin' to bash some skulls together!"
( I assume you mean the door to the room?)
Ollezall proffers the book to Cerlinde. "I can help you read celestial if you do not already know it. Hey, look I got a cat friend....." Ollezall whispers " can you check if it's actually a cat please? Looks feline to me...but I'm not an arcanist" Ollezall will smile politely.
Ollezall will inspect the bookshelf. I would like to spot and point out any significant wear on the shelves that would indicate a book has been more frequently used than the others.
Perception 15
I would also like to look for any relevant religious texts or effigies .
Religion 22.
Ollezall will also be on alert for danger ( spidey sense/passive perception 15)
Mohdrak took the events that had transpired in stride.
'A manor with a kitchen and enough space certainly is one of the better places to get stuck.' He offered merely a shrug. 'You lot work on getting us back. I'll head to the kitchen and take stock. If we're going to be here for a while, I might as well make sure we don't have to survive on hardtack and water.'
The minotaur left the others to the books and went to search for said kitchen. 'Come find me if you need some muscle.' He shouted at over his shoulder before venturing deeper into the manor.
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus
Syd appears to wander aimlessly among the bookshelves, although in fact he is surreptitiously looking for volumes I and II of Forbidden Liasons. And, you know, clues.
Investigation: 13
Cerlinde picks up the new book that Ollezall found near the cat and flips through the pages. Oddly enough, the pages only contain the following block of text, repeated over and over.
While the book does resemble The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces, it does not otherwise have that special, arcane feeling of a spellbook.
Ollezall searches the shelves, particularly focused on finding religious texts. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, he finds that, while most of the books in this study are memoirs written by Fistandia, there are a fair number devoted to the worship and history of Mystra, the goddess of magic. Reviewing a few of the memoirs, Ollezall discovers that Fistandia was a priest of Mystra, as well as a powerful mage. In exchange for Fistandia’s pious service and achievements in expanding the arts of magic, Mystra granted Fistandia the knowledge to create this permanent extradimensional mansion. (I did mean the door to the study, sorry for not being clear!)
Mohdrak exits the study, in search of the kitchen. Standing in the hallway, he can detect a faint smell of food drifting from the east. It appears that the next door in that direction, just past the staircase, is also slightly ajar. As he ponders whether to head that direction or to explore elsewhere, Mohdrak hears a meow as the black cat rubs against his legs as it passes by, heading in the direction of the presumptive kitchen. It heads into the open door that Mohdrak just saw.
Syd's surreptitious searching for more of the history of the two star-crossed lovers is successful and he discovers Vol. 1, in excellent condition no less! Reaching down to pluck the treasured novel from the shelf, he also notices what appear to be signs of wear on the same shelf in front of another text on magical portals, as though it had been selected for study by Fistandia many times. (I was absolutely going to have you find another in the series!)
Dyumi, on the hunt for goodies, discovers a bowl of black licorice. It has a light dusting of cat hair.
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Syd hurriedly hides the novel in his pack, and then plucks the text on portals from the shelf. He calls to Cerlinde, "Hey take a look at this one."
Dyumi pockets the licorice with glee and rushes over to Syd and Cerlinde
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely.
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Cerlinde says “this book appears to be either in code of some sort, or a language I don’t know- or perhaps the true contents are masked with a spell”. On a whim, she starts reading the words aloud, in hopes that one was a password or something.
She then puts that book in her pack. Muttering something about studying it later, and accepts the new one from Syd… “ ahh yes- heavily used, this one, might be useful- she opens it up…”
(Sorry for being a bit late with this one!)
As Syd pulls the book from the shelf and turns to hand it to Cerlinde, a loud click is heard and the set of shelves from which he pulled it recedes into the wall and slides away to the right. You can see a dimly lit staircase descending to a lower level.
There is no effect as Cerlinde reads the unknown language from the recently discovered book.
Active - Player: Sleeping Gods ---- Complete - Player: Masquerade, Teleportation Machine ---- Complete - DM: Extradimensional Spaces
Come join the Worlds of Pphost, a new and growing PbP community! Adventures are currently running in the world of Haven or do some role-playing!
It never hurts to help! ---- PbP: [Rolling Dice] [Tooltips] ---- DDB Content: [Free Adventures] [Encounter of the Week]
"Ahh, I've seen something like this... It's filler. Scribes use it to 'fluff up' libraries and bookcases to give it a feeling of fullness until more Legitimate books can be acquired; or collectors need to pawn off their books and don't want to have gaps in the shelf. You can purchase these books cheap so you don't lose face by having empty shelves. My guess is they came with the mansion when it was conjured"
*Pain is love itself; fear of death is for the classroom....heh, sounds like the ramblings of a scribe that's for sure* Ollezall thinks. * How do I know what it said?* Ollezall also thinks to himself.