Crimson Sands of Time

<Which player is best at arcana? That is the one that should be doing attunements. If we add guidance and bardic inspiration, I think we can do well on rolls>

Quote from Brian_Avery >>

Trisk will Counterspell the evoker's Counterspell so that Ethan's Eldritch blasts land true.

 The three-way wizard/warlock battle seems to move un slow-motion fir the participants as Ethan's baseballs freeze in place unstead of flying toward their targets as the evoker waves a hand to dismissed them. But, before they fade into the weave, Trisk waves away the tendrils of magic abjuring the arcane spheres and allowing them to hurtle at uncanny speed toward the evoker, who is slammed into the far wall of his quarters, pinned there as all three orbs make potent impacts, but the red wizard yet stands, blood boiling, eyes filled with rage.

<Randy would technically need 45ft kf movement for this, but since the last aoe has a target limit, hus position wouldn't effect anything, so well say he's close enough prior to this to make it work, but the cannon o ly has 15ft of mobem3mnt i think, so it could not cover the distance, unless it was positioned significantly ahead of Randy.  🤔 )

<Sorry for the delay.  It works.>

Randy's ballista shuts down the Evoker, leaving him crumpled on the floor, barely breathing.

There are no other targets in sight, plenty of doors, though.

Trisk will immediately move and take his turn to search the recently downed evoker. He will check for any written orders, maps, scrolls... even if it's just a note. Then he will double check for anything else of interest.

Trisk's Investigation: 7 

"Let's see if he has anything that can help? Or maybe point us in the right direction?"

The room contains a rough cot and  footlocker holding worthless personal possessions.

The red wizard, himself, is carrying -1 spell scrolls (2).

Random roll 2

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Anything from Sam or Tetrevess?

Okay, I'm going to speed this up. As written these npc show up n rounds afte4 combat starts. Combat lasted <½ of 1 round, then you found the necy one and killed him while also one-shot sniping another apprentice.

So, there are two others in their rooms, dye to pop out at some point. They pose no challenge to you, really and this isn't that interesting. So, I'm removing them and the rest kf the rooms are essentially empty except for 2 libraries at the corners, which are libraries. And...

Cell A, which contain a fine bed, a footlocker, and a desk. Searching the area uncovers a journal, as well as the tome of the stilled tongue! and six spell scrolls (two each of detect magic, identify, and remove curse). There is also a scroll describing how to turn soul-bound undead back into non-undead creatures.

That's the whole room. I'll map it up asap.

(ooc: you don't use attunement correct? does that mean any wizard can use this book without attuning to it?)

Piccolo points to the soul-bound scroll excitedly.
She plays a melodious tune on her instrument.

You see a vision of a paladin getting killed in the pillar room while trying to help Piccolo. He then seems to come back to life, resurrected....but...he is trapped here. He leaves the scene, but when he returns again to the room of pillars, he seems more ragged and less kept. He leaves again, and you no sense of time. When he returns, she approaches him only to find he is undead, a red wizard controlling his actions. His soul, gone.

https://imgur.com/a/GAhtVR6

Whilst making sure the previous red wizards they fought are well tied up and bound so they cannot fight back, Ethan then turns his attention to Randy. "We got ambushed. Someone expected us to approach him before we incapacitated him. They should be bound but still breathing by now." He glances at the scroll that Piccolo points to, only to recoil when she plays the illusion in his head. "You guys take the reigns. Me and Randy will patrol for any enemies nearby. Randy. You know what to do." He then flanks the sides of the group, keeping watch for danger. After this encounter he's paranoid to set of any more surprise enemy encounters just by opening any doors... though he knows he cannot avoid it all the same. (Perception: 21)

He doesn't know which is worse to relive though: Those terrifying illusions that the weird girl herself is creating... or the day where he slaughtered those eight, inexperienced red wizards in cold blood by himself because they almost killed Randy...

Quote from Brian_Avery >>

(ooc: you don't use attunement correct? does that mean any wizard can use this book without attuning to it?)

 I don't see an issue here,  but if I'm missing something, we can revisit it. Most of its functions require it to be held, which sends more restrictive than attunement. The nature of the item, rather than the attunement rule is what requires the ability to cast wizard spells from a spellbook, a condition most easily.met by taking a level of wizard.

Quote from PyromaniIsDeadThankGod >>

Whilst making sure the previous red wizards they fought are well tied up and bound so they cannot fight back, Ethan then turns his attention to Randy. "We got ambushed. Someone expected us to approach him before we incapacitated him. They should be bound but still breathing by now." He glances at the scroll that Piccolo points to, only to recoil when she plays the illusion in his head. "You guys take the reigns. Me and Randy will patrol for any enemies nearby. Randy. You know what to do." He then flanks the sides of the group, keeping watch for danger. After this encounter he's paranoid to set of any more surprise enemy encounters just by opening any doors... though he knows he cannot avoid it all the same. (Perception: 7)

He doesn't know which is worse to relive though: Those terrifying illusions that the weird girl herself is creating... or the day where he slaughtered those eight, inexperienced red wizards in cold blood by himself because they almost killed Randy...

 <I mean, you surprised a group of students meditating and executed them before they could do anything. I don't think that and busting into their TA's room and killing him like a SWAT team counts as them ambushing you.>

You also find 33 gp and, within Lahnis' private documents, you find some piece of arcane metaphysical reflections, which conclude '...necromancy can be reshaped to restore life!'

Separately, you find another document which explains that Szass Tam repurposed the Phylactery Vault for his own magical experiments, but it doesn't give much detail on what those experiments might be.

<As you can see, other than the libraries and rooms you've already explored, there's not much here but doors leading West and South.>

What do you want to do? 

Library, south, west. Pick.

Piccolo comes over the Trisk to check on him.
She wipes blood from her face (had she eatean anyone else's heart?. She smiles, playing a tune of thanks to all.

Then, she seems to disappear, she is....gone.

(Trisk)