"Well whatever the hell made this corpse pile, it seems to have been making pretty regular trips in and out of here." Kathra says. "And it's shedding scales to boot."
Thont also shares that this also feels like a situation where someone summoned something they didn't mean to. And he's pretty sure, because he's biased, that it wasn't whoever was meditating peacefully originally in here.
I go back down the stairs and let everyone know what I saw. “Mirabel you might find upstairs interesting” Gavin looks at Kathra, “That sword is glowing with magic, I imagine it is quite a weapon. Do you have any interest in wielding it?”
”Also,” he says to the group, “I am convinced that whatever that scale came off of has the power to not be seen by eyes alone. When I was a mercenary we had this one fellow with us for a while. He was a story teller, a blow hard actually. But one story he told us at the fire one night gives me an idea if what I think is true. He said one time he was tracking a criminal wizard who had the ability to turn invisible. He set a trap for him with a fake scroll as wizards are always on the look out to find new knowledge.” He turns to Maribel “No offense”
”Anyways, he said his trap, when sprung, flung paint...or maybe it was dye, onto whoever picked up the scroll case. He said that when the wizard cast his spell they could still see the paint and a few crossbow bolts later, the wizard’s bounty was theirs.” Gavin shrugs his shoulders “Now like I said the man was a blow hard and like to tell tall stories so I do not know if this is true, but it does sound...reasonable” Gavin pulls out his bag of quartz sand “I have this, and it will glitter like a thousand gems if we can get it somehow to break on top of our (he does the air quotes sign) ‘invisible dragon’. Does anyone else have anything that may do the same or have a container that would break easily?”
((I will also now be on the lookout for any glass or fragile containers or any liquids that may have the effect of being easily seen such as inks, dyes and such))
((Everything down here is pretty trashed, but you might find some unbroken ink-pots upstairs in the observation deck. Theoretically, the people who were looking at things would likely need to notate what they saw.))
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
((Meta, is there any rooms that we have seen that have smaller entrances/doorways/stairs that would limit a large sized creature from entering? Somewhere that would be safer to rest?))
The stairs here don't look wide enough for a very large creature to move along comfortably. It's likely that a creature of that size that could fly would skip the stairs altogether and try to squeeze into the entrance in the ceiling that the stairs lead to. You do see evidence of some scratches on the landing area just below room above.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
"I am all for any plan that makes our enemy easier to see." Kathra says. She eyes the sword a little warily. "I'll stick with my ax for now, I think - but I'll put some time into familiarizing myself with the sword when we have the time."
She heads up the stairs to the observation area and takes a look around, focusing on the cracks in the crystal (and looking for any inkpots they might be able to use).
((The two hallways to the Forge Room actually had doors separating that area from the rest of this place. You would have thought the two rooms with the murals might have been safe, but the evidence of scraping and the shed scales leads you to believe that whatever creature lives here can manage those larger hallways. There's also that secret door that Peren found in the Altar Room that was jammed, but may lead to somewhere defensible. Everywhere else seems a likely place to get attacked if you tried to hold up for a long rest.))
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
The cracks in the crystal structure in the center of the room appear, upon closer inspection, to be three claw marks. The middle scratch gouges deep into the crystal and a web of small cracks go even deeper from there still. The two other claws do not seem to have gone quite so deep. While looking around the room, you notice a desk with a few ink pots on it and what appear to be some yellow lensed goggles. Before you can cross the room however, the hum from the crystal pillar shifts sharply and a burst of multi-color energy arcs from the crack in its side, bouncing and reflecting off various mirrors and baubles within the room.
Kathra needs to make a Dex save.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
For Thont and Gavin:
The bodies do not appear to be drained of blood, but, being frozen, it's not like a lot of fluids are draining out of them either.
For Kathra:
You try to dodge the beam of radiant colors than darts through the room, but you fail to account for certain...reflective geometries as the multi-color ray bounces off a crystal dangling from the ceiling and strikes you full on.
Kathra takes 14 radiant damage.
As the light sears your flesh, your mind is cast out of your body and your senses go dark. You think you are still conscious, or maybe dead, floating in a dark void. Slowly, you note pin-pricks of light that come into being all around you. It doesn't take long before you realize you are floating out among the stars. It's a very disconcerting feeling. You drift for a time, seeing galaxies born and stars die. Occasionally a group of starts forming an animal-like constellation will move across your path, disturbing whatever ethereal current you are floating on and spinning you away like a leaf on a stream. Suddenly you find you are on a perilous course directly into the mass of a giant white star. You struggle as best you can, but it seems to pull you ever closer. You can feel its heat burn your skin, you close your eyes but the light is still there, almost blinding.....
In an instant to come to back on the floor of the Observation Room. As quickly as you can, almost on adrenaline and reflex alone you scramble to the safely of the stairs below.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Gavin takes the sword from Peren and sees how it feels in his hand. “Very nice weapon indeed. Maribel, do you have any magic that can tell us more about this sword?”
His admiration of the sword is cut short by a loud and sudden dwarven curse. Gavin starts heading up the stairs, “Kathra!”
You find the smoking pile of Kathra alive, but maybe a bit disoriented, at the top of the stairs. She is rather injured, but it doesn't look like she will die of her wounds. Of note, however, you see glittering silver lines connecting dots to form various animal constellations all over her exposed skin that were clearly not there when she was with you earlier.
"Well whatever the hell made this corpse pile, it seems to have been making pretty regular trips in and out of here." Kathra says. "And it's shedding scales to boot."
I hand the new disc I found to Mirabel - "another piece of the puzzle."
And watch for Gavin's reaction as he creeps up the stairs... While also looking below to ensure something isn't coming up at us.
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
Thont also shares that this also feels like a situation where someone summoned something they didn't mean to. And he's pretty sure, because he's biased, that it wasn't whoever was meditating peacefully originally in here.
I go back down the stairs and let everyone know what I saw. “Mirabel you might find upstairs interesting” Gavin looks at Kathra, “That sword is glowing with magic, I imagine it is quite a weapon. Do you have any interest in wielding it?”
”Also,” he says to the group, “I am convinced that whatever that scale came off of has the power to not be seen by eyes alone. When I was a mercenary we had this one fellow with us for a while. He was a story teller, a blow hard actually. But one story he told us at the fire one night gives me an idea if what I think is true. He said one time he was tracking a criminal wizard who had the ability to turn invisible. He set a trap for him with a fake scroll as wizards are always on the look out to find new knowledge.” He turns to Maribel “No offense”
”Anyways, he said his trap, when sprung, flung paint...or maybe it was dye, onto whoever picked up the scroll case. He said that when the wizard cast his spell they could still see the paint and a few crossbow bolts later, the wizard’s bounty was theirs.” Gavin shrugs his shoulders “Now like I said the man was a blow hard and like to tell tall stories so I do not know if this is true, but it does sound...reasonable” Gavin pulls out his bag of quartz sand “I have this, and it will glitter like a thousand gems if we can get it somehow to break on top of our (he does the air quotes sign) ‘invisible dragon’. Does anyone else have anything that may do the same or have a container that would break easily?”
((I will also now be on the lookout for any glass or fragile containers or any liquids that may have the effect of being easily seen such as inks, dyes and such))
((Everything down here is pretty trashed, but you might find some unbroken ink-pots upstairs in the observation deck. Theoretically, the people who were looking at things would likely need to notate what they saw.))
Hmm... Thont doesn't have anything. But hearing Gavin tell of the lenses up above us - maybe some of those lenses can, "see" it?
Isn't it kind of odd it hasn't trashed the room above too? I wonder if it's afraid?
I check the stairs going up - are there scratches of movement going UP them?
Investigation: 19
((Meta, is there any rooms that we have seen that have smaller entrances/doorways/stairs that would limit a large sized creature from entering? Somewhere that would be safer to rest?))
For Thont:
The stairs here don't look wide enough for a very large creature to move along comfortably. It's likely that a creature of that size that could fly would skip the stairs altogether and try to squeeze into the entrance in the ceiling that the stairs lead to. You do see evidence of some scratches on the landing area just below room above.
"I am all for any plan that makes our enemy easier to see." Kathra says. She eyes the sword a little warily. "I'll stick with my ax for now, I think - but I'll put some time into familiarizing myself with the sword when we have the time."
She heads up the stairs to the observation area and takes a look around, focusing on the cracks in the crystal (and looking for any inkpots they might be able to use).
Investigation: 20
((The two hallways to the Forge Room actually had doors separating that area from the rest of this place. You would have thought the two rooms with the murals might have been safe, but the evidence of scraping and the shed scales leads you to believe that whatever creature lives here can manage those larger hallways. There's also that secret door that Peren found in the Altar Room that was jammed, but may lead to somewhere defensible. Everywhere else seems a likely place to get attacked if you tried to hold up for a long rest.))
Not to be morbid, but is there much blood left in the stack of animal bodies?
Another idea... what about soot from a fire?
For Kathra:
The cracks in the crystal structure in the center of the room appear, upon closer inspection, to be three claw marks. The middle scratch gouges deep into the crystal and a web of small cracks go even deeper from there still. The two other claws do not seem to have gone quite so deep. While looking around the room, you notice a desk with a few ink pots on it and what appear to be some yellow lensed goggles. Before you can cross the room however, the hum from the crystal pillar shifts sharply and a burst of multi-color energy arcs from the crack in its side, bouncing and reflecting off various mirrors and baubles within the room.
Kathra needs to make a Dex save.
Kathra swears and attempts to dive out of the way, but she's pretty obviously not fast enough.
Dex save: 13
((Shiiiiiiiit))
Peren hands the sword to Gavin and says “I only use finesse weapons, but this looks to be powerful”
For Thont and Gavin:
The bodies do not appear to be drained of blood, but, being frozen, it's not like a lot of fluids are draining out of them either.
For Kathra:
You try to dodge the beam of radiant colors than darts through the room, but you fail to account for certain...reflective geometries as the multi-color ray bounces off a crystal dangling from the ceiling and strikes you full on.
Kathra takes 14 radiant damage.
As the light sears your flesh, your mind is cast out of your body and your senses go dark. You think you are still conscious, or maybe dead, floating in a dark void. Slowly, you note pin-pricks of light that come into being all around you. It doesn't take long before you realize you are floating out among the stars. It's a very disconcerting feeling. You drift for a time, seeing galaxies born and stars die. Occasionally a group of starts forming an animal-like constellation will move across your path, disturbing whatever ethereal current you are floating on and spinning you away like a leaf on a stream. Suddenly you find you are on a perilous course directly into the mass of a giant white star. You struggle as best you can, but it seems to pull you ever closer. You can feel its heat burn your skin, you close your eyes but the light is still there, almost blinding.....
In an instant to come to back on the floor of the Observation Room. As quickly as you can, almost on adrenaline and reflex alone you scramble to the safely of the stairs below.
Gavin takes the sword from Peren and sees how it feels in his hand. “Very nice weapon indeed. Maribel, do you have any magic that can tell us more about this sword?”
His admiration of the sword is cut short by a loud and sudden dwarven curse. Gavin starts heading up the stairs, “Kathra!”
"Hm, afraid not, I would need to spend some time with the weapon to learn anything of---Kathra!"
Mirabel rushes to the collapsed body of his friend.
Peren also rushes over to the steps to try to help Kathra
For Peren, Gavin and Mirabel:
You find the smoking pile of Kathra alive, but maybe a bit disoriented, at the top of the stairs. She is rather injured, but it doesn't look like she will die of her wounds. Of note, however, you see glittering silver lines connecting dots to form various animal constellations all over her exposed skin that were clearly not there when she was with you earlier.