Star Metal Marauders- Highway Harvest

Quote from shimshon123 >>

"Lir, Vars, lets take a look here at this dead end. This says secret passage all over it to me."
Perception: 14

"I may have nightmares about Frangipani here beating me to death with this wooden spoon, ah....fond memories of my childhood of some of the nuns I had to deal with."

 Looking at the wall, it does seem odd to you. A tad too smooth compared to the surrounding stone. And Reginald detects the presence of conjuration magic in this hallway

Quote from eocu >>

Lir looks at Sparhawk, then at the wall, then sceptically back at Sparhawk. He shrugs, bends down and picks up a stone, then flings it at the wall. 

Magic Stone [Lir is trying to punch through the potentially hollow wall/door] 10

 the stone Lir throws goes straight through. The wall appears the same.

“Did you see that!” Sparhawk looks at Lir

“Either an illusion of some sort of perhaps a teleportation portal.  We ran into one before”

(do we hear the rock hit the ground on the other side)

"Reginald, what do you think?"

"careful, Vars got close to a picture and disappeared, and ended up on the other side of town." Sparhawk considers options, not being a magic or dungeon specialist.
We can try poking this pole and see if its just an illusion or we can tie something to a rope and send it through and see what happens, or perhaps the familiar can go through?"

He looks at Bjorn,

"Bjorn the cunning, what do you think?"

Vars huffs when the object inside the footlocker turns out to be a spoon. He wasn't interested in some magic spoon. Then he catches sight of the poster, "Hey... why does it seem like Abernath is surfacing everywhere. This map wasn't part of either of our quests..." He shakes his head. "I don't know how this is connected, but its rather odd if you ask me. The fellow I bought this map from said that it has been in his family for generations. It's just a little odd that we find a poster with Abernathy on it and that this cave turned out to be some chief's bedroom. I suppose all we can do is keep going."

He frowns at the wall, "I could throw the end of my rope through it. See if it gets sucked through into a portal."

"Vars, I feel that the random person selling you a map that has been in his family for generations was suspicious."  He looks at him, "then to have Abernath keep popping up...." He strokes his broken nose and chin, "I"m actually wondering if we are being helped to find him by someone, and the item we seek is also related to him." He looks again at Vars, "To be honest, it wouldn't suprise me if the person who sold you that map is either Irongrass or Abernath. We've certainly seen Bjorn disguise himself, why couldn't they do that as well."

Quote from shimshon123 >>

“Did you see that!” Sparhawk looks at Lir

“Either an illusion of some sort of perhaps a teleportation portal.  We ran into one before”

(do we hear the rock hit the ground on the other side)

"Reginald, what do you think?"

You do not hear it hit the ground

"Not going to lie, I didn't think about that when I bought it...that he could have been a wizard I mean." Vars huffs, "But I wasn't about to pay him full price when I met him, hence me owing him something if we find treasure. I wasn't about to just trust that he was going to sell me a family heirloom for just a few gold pieces...and I did think it was questionable that such a large stash of treasure has just been sitting here for so long." He crosses his arms, "But that did cross my mind... bloody wizards. If that's the case, then...well if it was Abernath then why didn't he go to the tower? Why would he sell me the map instead of getting help for himself?" 

"These things are mind boggling to me, they are the type of schemes that our friend Bjorn comes up with." He laughs, "the more we try to figure it out, the more confused we will be.  Either way, lots of things seem to be leading to Abernath.  Now, I didn't hear the rock hit something, so I'm thinking teleportation.  Try the end of your rope and lets see what happens unless someone has a better idea here. Also, before we go teleporting somewhere, we still have more to explore here, especially the water in the cave."

Again, Vars, you and I don't trust people easily, as most people have ulterior motives, even those of good intentions. The map guy seemed fishy to me, but if it helps us figure out some stuff and gives Frangipani a magic spoon, and some gems that could be worth more if we cut them, totally worth it.

"I think it's more likely that Abernath is just a famous performer who has fans." Bjorn frowns at the strange wall. "Wizards always extend their lives unnaturally. I think that's what they become wizards for. Reginald, are you planning on living forever as well?"

"Hm. I struggle to imagine a trap here. This is a portal, methinks. Maybe a job for the little demon? What's yours called, eh? Eel Sherry? Clam Lager, maybe?"

“Bjorn does this portal line up with our map from Abernaths home?”

"Not hardly. That's several hours north, at least."

Frangipani hasn't been paying attention to the door shenanigans, she's too busy playing with her new spoon.

" I can go through."

" It'll be fine."

Sparhawk looks at Frangipani. "Lets take a look down that other corridor first. I don't want any of us taking a one way trip to somewhere we don't want to be.  Then we can decide how and if to go through or take a look at the water."  (Unless anyone disagrees, lets head to the right down the stairs)

Arcana roll (+6) : 17 

(OOC : the Arcana roll was to see if he knew about the potential Higher level spells/other options beyond the obvious conjuration type (Teleport)... with an 8, probably not)

Reginald ends casting his ritual to make the comment "Conjuration auras are usally consistent with spells like teleportation. Beyond that not sure what this is or what it does. I will need to spend a 1/2 hour examining it to determine if it is a permanent spell, a trap or an actual magic item.  In the mean time let's investgate the rest of the area, as our Captain suggested." 

Reginald then begins ritual recasting Detect Magic again, so it will be another ten minutes minus the time left on current spell of no magic detection.

"Abernath and other wizards of Luskan seem to have teleportation portals set up as their quick means of travel. The question is where it goes to and how to get back. The last one we tried was a one way portal." Thus Sparhawks hesitation with separating the party, cart, donkey, etc.
(We head toward the stairs in same party order, that is, unless someone does something impulsive ;-(      

You turn from the wall and head down the stairs, there are 2 flights. Keeping a close watch for anything out of the ordinary, you are happy to find no more strings or other out of place indication of traps. At the end of the 2nd flight you come out in a 10’x25’ hallway that leads to a dimly lit kitchen. 

Sparhawk looks around, relieved that there are no rugs or puddings. Lets take a quick look around and see if we find anything. Frangipani, is that the dumb waiter you came out of in your cat form?"
Perception for secret doors: 23

(Is there a passage at z25?)