Heavy is the Head - Campaign thread

Spiderlock heads down the stairs to the level below and skitters across to the harpy nest containing the egg, and spins in place to see if any of his companions are following. When he sees they are, he first heads to the part where he caught a glimpse of a glow, and makes to push the nest off it to reveal further the conjuration circle.

If perhaps Lam moves to help, he will back off, and go and wait at the top of the stairs heading down so they know he has more to show them.

When Saoirse compliments him, Lam seems to lift his chest higher and stand taller. He follows his spider friend, confused until he figures out his friend’s objective. Once he does, he heads over to the nest and attempts to push it off of the conjuration circle without hurting the egg. Then he points at what he’s revealed and looks at his friends for answers.

Lam, roll athletics

Sha follows along.  When everyone is interpreting Spiderlock's gestures Sha is looking at the nesting and the bits and pieces scattered about.  If it's not too late he will cradle the egg in his arms as Lam attempts to move the nest.  Sha will hum a hymn of the the twilight faith and think about the creatures that are said to be special to his goddess.

The nest isn't quite solid enough to be easily sivede out of the way - instead when Lam pushes the edge the next crumbled a little inwards, and the base of it bends and tilts away from Lam. The egg begins to roll, but Sha was luckily jumping into the nest to cradle the egg from. The other side at the same time. The Tabaxi has it in his arms before the helpless egg spills onto the hard floor, humming a soothing hymn to this unborn living monument to the duality of his goddess. Beauty of song, as a tool of death and the hunt; flight and freedom making nest in dark and dangerous places; new life coming at the cost (remember the bones littering the floor) of life given. There is a faint stirring in the egg - the unborn harpy yet lives, and is within a few weeks of its hatch date.

The disturbance in the nest doesn't reveal much more of the conjuring circle, but you can see enough to know that it is definitely for conjuration, and fairly large for that.

When Spiderlock sees more of the conjuration circle revealed, he is satisfied that this floor relates to the conjuration symbol on the door. Now to see what they have missed by scaling the outside wall. He skitters in circles a couple of times to get the other's attention, then heads off down the stairs, moving from the floor to the wall and finally onto the ceiling as he descends.

He stops completely still before he leaves the safety of the stair well, and surveys the scene before him.

Perception: 7+6=13 (Passive: 16)

The stairs come to an abrupt halt - after two steps down there is a closed wall. There is, however, a large and simple round button, placed conveniently for one descending the stairs to touch.

Hemlock will rotate in place on the ceiling and wait for the others to catch up.

(I mean to say, you can not reach the ceiling of the floor below you. The stairwell is closed and sealed.)

After following the rest, Saoirse finally understands what their spider friend is trying to achieve. So they missed one floor, and he's trying to look for it to complete the last door code, right?

She follows his every movement, and when he stops in the ceiling, the genasi looks at him questioningly. As the spider uses one of his hairy legs to point at something, she sees the button.

- Oh, okay then? Shall I press? - she asks Spiderlock, and when she gets the weirdest nod ever (coming from a spider), she adds - Oookay. One more button to push... - she says as the presses it.

The stairs open and descend, spiraling downwards and carrying you with them, as new stairs emerge out of the stone to follow and fill the spiral. 

You find yourself on a floor below, with no windows and a fairly low ceiling. There are four workbenches along the wall, each with a single item sitting on top of it. A sword on the southern  bench, a key on the western one, a book on the northern one, and a hand mirror on the eastern one. There are not other obvious items around in the room. The staircase does not seem to extend down to the Evocation room below- except for that there is another simular button just beside the stairs, on the wall.

An annoyingly familiar voice fills the air around you. "Reminder: seal the room before conducting experiments on this floor." 

The lizardfolk eyes the egg an Sha's arms. "You gonna eat that?"

Saoirse presses the button to close the room, just to stop hearing the annyoing condescending voice. 

- Mmm ... do you guys sense any kind of magic? - she asks. She could use the goggles, but she prefers not to unenvelop them again unless necessary, as they looked really fragile. 

Since she has a clear affinity for weapons, if she doesn't notice anything dangerous in the room, she approaches the workbench with the sword on it to examine it closely, making sure she does not touch anything.

Spiderlock now skitters across the ceiling of the newly revealed room, using his spider sense to uncover anything not immediately obvious or that s concealed. He is very careful to avoid moving to any area of the room that seems dangerous, for instance that have magic circles or glyphs on the floor, ceiling or walls.

The lizardfolk eyes the egg an Sha's arms. "You gonna eat that?"

Sha-gravis gets a little smile, but shakes his head no.  He holds the egg close continuing to hum.  It might be his imagination but it seems like the baby is humming too.  ‘What am I doing?  Harpies are incredibly dangerous creatures... he glances at the Lizardfolk, but so are we.  Goddess bless this little one.’

By the time Lam is able to react to the egg starting to roll off the nest, Sha has already picked up the egg to secure it. A relieved huff comes from Lam as he stops what he is doing in a delayed response and leaves the nest exactly where it stopped. He listens to Sha humming to the egg, and exclaims in one awed breath in Goblin, “Schöne Musik!”

 He follows his friends down to the previously hidden floor and scans the room for anything that might reveal what kind of magic the room is.

He notices the quick exchange between Sha and the lizardfolk, and he walks over to Sha to begin speaking in Goblin: “Danke für das Ei retten. Ich würde mich furchtbar gefühlt, wenn ich versehentlich Schaden hat anrichten. Dein Summend ist beruhigen.”

„Ihre Anwesenheit in der Nähe ist für mich eine große Beruhigung, Lam. Ich möchte, dass Sie wissen, dass ich Ihre Kameradschaft sehr schätze. Ich schulde dir wirklich meinen Lebensfreund.“ -goblin

 “Can you hear?  I think she is humming with me.”  Sha-gravis continues to cradle and hum.

The lizardfolk cocks his head in silent, unkind judgement as Sha hums. An insightful observer could read in his expression that trying to hatch or raise a harpy is obvious foolishness, and in this case a waste of a nutritious meal. Nevertheless, he turns and swiftly follows down the stairs.

When Saoirse presses the button, the stairs retract, leaving you in a low, windowless room with the 4 workbenches, and a cool pale light emanating from the ceiling in the center of the room. Lam's magic awareness has faded, but the light source seems to be a continuous form of the light enchantment - nothing particularly exciting in this magical world - and the workbenches and items are the only other obvious magical items in the room..  

(Note - did everyone come downstairs? Or are we split right now between this floor and the conjuration room, with Sha still upstairs?)

On Saoirse's inspection, it is clear that the workbench is for focusing and fixing magical properties into items. There are some runes matching the symbol for Enchantment magic, which based on your training and experience would certainly make sense to only experiment with in a place that keeps enchantments from accidentally expanding and affecting people outside the room. She is also reminded of the fact that it was magic of this school that was used in conjunction with hemocraft to create the collar that bound Sebastian to service. You feel a sense of respect for the magical practitioners who built this place - despite their puzzles and annoying message system. It is also clear to you that there has been no activity on this floor in the past two decades, but that there was some tinkering done here by the Artificer at that time. It is unclear whether the artificer or the ARTS wizards crafted the blade you examine on the workbench in front of you, a beautiful, finely crafted longsword with the image of a wolf carved into the handle. There is no doubt that this is a magical item, and one smithed by a master.

Hemlock can see that each of the four items glow with enchantment magic - and is reminded of the Kobold community's aversion to this entire school of magic, but also of the fact that the Journal of Secrets he carries is a powerful example of this art.

The lizardfolk stands beside Saoirse, admiring the blade. He reaches out towards it, to take it in his hand.

https://www.owlbear.rodeo/room/5nRs1L_uFdxM/HeavyistheHeadPBP

Sha follows downstairs with the party.

Spiderlock turns around in a circle as he looks at each workbench in turn, and the items upon them. He is now sure that the next glyph to press on the door above is enchantment, but he isn't quite sure if there is more to learn on this floor. Or if there are dangers on this floor as there seem to be on the others.

He decides to go and look further at the mirror, if nothing else to see his own reflection as a spider. And perhaps examine it as well.

Arcana: 12+1=13

Hemlock, as you see yourself in the mirror, the strangest feeling takes hold of you. The mirror itself is a beautiful, silver thing, with an engraving of an ermine curling around the glass itself. Looking at yourself as a spider is... hilarious. You feel a strong urge to laugh. You can tell that the mirror is enchanted, and yet... make a wisdom saving throw.

https://www.owlbear.rodeo/room/5nRs1L_uFdxM/HeavyistheHeadPBP