This time Xanrym's words aren't imbued with bardic magic, but Khessa still feels euphorically moved to action: "Indeed!" she approves—and, unceremoniously stepping on the shards of the Mirror Shade and carefully making her way through the area occupied by Asclepius, she reaches one of the surviving spiders, the one that appears most battered to her.
The blonde arcane warrior already has both hands gripping the hilt of her magical Greatsword and quickly delivers a rising slash to the magical arachnid's legs.
You shatter the final Glass Spider, who similarly reforms and flies back into the mirror's place. The six mirrors sit there in there inky blackness, the first one having gone back to that state after showing you the Earth Node before. There is no other exit to this room apart from the stairs you came up
Theldrin sighs and shakes his head as he studies the mirrors to make sure nothing more is coming out of them to attack the party. "Well... that was... interesting, I wonder what our next move should be."
Xanrym loads a bolt and holds his crossbow at the ready for long after the mirror monsters have been defeated. While The Company continue to acquit itself well against the guardians of the Necromancer's Spike, they're facing stronger defenses than he expected to find after this place has lain empty for so long. Or -- at least -- stronger resistance than he expected to find before they locate Fadheela.
But that reminds him of one positive development. Once it's clear that nothing else is going to attack them and that the whole Company is in reasonably good shape, he points out the last words of the Mirror Shade:
Coriana's two attacks kill the Mirror Shade, it yells in a shrill voice, "You must be with her! The one that ran through here some time ago! You will both feel the wrath of our great master Maroe!"
"It would seem that the Living Spells and these strange mirror monsters are guardians leftover from Maroe's time," Xanrym concludes, "not evidence of Fadheela's own power." He expresses his hope that while Fadheela clearly had the means to avoid or fend off Maroe's guardians, she is hopefully not powerful enough to have summoned or created such guardians herself.
Once The Company is ready to start searching this room, Xanrym heeds Syllen's comment from the start of the fight and asks whether everyone wants to try the other command words on the 5 other mirrors. He says, "The first mirror shows a view on the Earth Node on the other side of the Sullen Sea. If all of the mirrors possess some powers of divination, perhaps one of the other mirrors will show us something of real benefit." Of course, there's always the chance that speaking the command word will trigger more mirror monsters to burst forth. (Xanrym hopes not, but it's always a possibility!)
"If the mirrors are the only way out of here other than the way we came, then perhaps it's worth trying other command word..." Theldrin muses. "But we may encounter more unpredictable and dangerous results. We might first look for secret doors here, and possibly check some of the other doors we left behind."
He then walks slowly along the wall of the room, searching for any secret doors.
As Theldrin finds the secret door Syllen lightly chuckles to himself.
“It seems that they should call this the tower of secret doors. Luckily we have the master of finding secret doors. It seems like there is much to learn from this tower when we have finished dealing with Fadheela.”
"Perhaps the negative consequence occurred because we chose the wrong mirror to address the command word to?" Khessa speculates, and begins examining the various mirrors for details that differentiate them (and that might connect them to the words "avail," "bewilder," "conquer," "dismay," "entreat," or "forget"—or their initials).
If the blonde arcane warrior doesn't identify any possible clues, she concludes: "...Or perhaps, for some reason, that Command Word necessarily implied that fight. Anyway, yes, then we might as well explore what lies beyond the secret place first... there might be further clues, too—beyond Fadheela's lair itself."
As Theldrin finds the secret door Syllen lightly chuckles to himself.
“It seems that they should call this the tower of secret doors. Luckily we have the master of finding secret doors. It seems like there is much to learn from this tower when we have finished dealing with Fadheela.”
Xanrym is also impressed at Theldrin's find. He agrees with Syllen, laughing. "Indeed! Perhaps it takes a wizard to know how another wizard thinks!"
If the blonde arcane warrior doesn't identify any possible clues, she concludes: "...Or perhaps, for some reason, that Command Word necessarily implied that fight. Anyway, yes, then we might as well explore what lies beyond the secret place first... there might be further clues, too—beyond Fadheela's lair itself."
Xanrym isn't sure. He guesses that the mirror monsters were just the guardians of this room, waiting to attack anyone other than Maroe or the apprentices who attempted to use one of the mirrors. He thinks that the other mirrors should be safe to use now, but their focus is still on finding Fadheela. He agrees that continuing to follow the route through the next secret door makes the most sense. "If Fadheela came up to this room, then she must have left the room through Theldrin's secret door."
Theldrin humbly accepts the compliments with a slight, almost imperceptible nod. "Well, it may be more luck so far than anything..."
He adds as he looks around the group, giving Khessa and Avery smile, "And I've had excellent help." He then frowns and rubs his beard as he continues, musing out loud, "My thought was, the way the mirror creature said she ran through here, that she maybe used a different route than the mirrors themselves."
Khessa looks at the mirrors and deduces that the Mirror Shade was simply a guard. No matter what you did it was going to attack, the other pass phrases must do something else similar to the first one: Show images in the mirrors.
Khessa looks at the mirrors intently for a while, then concludes: "No, we didn't do anything wrong. The Mirror Shade was simply a guard. No matter what we did, it was going to attack; the other pass phrases must do something else similar to the first one: show images in the mirrors".
The blonde arcane warrior then goes to open the secret door and leads the way beyond it: "Let's continue our hunt. As Theldrin guessed from the Shade's words, Fadheela must have passed through here."
With Khessa's information, Xanrymsuggests trying the other 5 mirrors first to see whether any of them show them a location elsewhere inside the Necromancer's Spike. Xanrym says, "It seems that Fadheela is using the Necromancer's Spike as her base in Pedestal, but these guardians," gesturing to the mirrors, "don't serve her. Perhaps one of the mirrors will show us more about where in the Necromancer's Spike she is."
"Onward..." Theldrin nods and follows Khessa through the secret door, keeping towards the middle of the group as they move down the passageway.
While Xanrym's Shield kept him safe in the last fight, The Company didn't make it through the last fight unscathed, and they're only doing OK now because of Syllen's healing. He checks whether everyone else is fine with continuing forward now.
Khessa pauses and replies to the bard: "I don't know, Xanrym... It doesn't seem very likely that the mirrors are meant to peer into the tower—in fact, the first one showed us an area quite far from here: the Node".
"But," the blonde arcane warrior shrugs "it shouldn't hurt to try, now that the guardians have been killed. As far as I'm concerned, we can go for it".
The tall adventuress waits a moment for the others to have their say.
Round 3
This time Xanrym's words aren't imbued with bardic magic, but Khessa still feels euphorically moved to action: "Indeed!" she approves—and, unceremoniously stepping on the shards of the Mirror Shade and carefully making her way through the area occupied by Asclepius, she reaches one of the surviving spiders, the one that appears most battered to her.
The blonde arcane warrior already has both hands gripping the hilt of her magical Greatsword and quickly delivers a rising slash to the magical arachnid's legs.
Khessa's Magical Greatsword Attack: 22 Damage: 11 (magical slashing) or 3 if missed (thanks to Graze property)
You shatter the final Glass Spider, who similarly reforms and flies back into the mirror's place. The six mirrors sit there in there inky blackness, the first one having gone back to that state after showing you the Earth Node before. There is no other exit to this room apart from the stairs you came up
Theldrin sighs and shakes his head as he studies the mirrors to make sure nothing more is coming out of them to attack the party. "Well... that was... interesting, I wonder what our next move should be."
Xanrym loads a bolt and holds his crossbow at the ready for long after the mirror monsters have been defeated. While The Company continue to acquit itself well against the guardians of the Necromancer's Spike, they're facing stronger defenses than he expected to find after this place has lain empty for so long. Or -- at least -- stronger resistance than he expected to find before they locate Fadheela.
But that reminds him of one positive development. Once it's clear that nothing else is going to attack them and that the whole Company is in reasonably good shape, he points out the last words of the Mirror Shade:
"It would seem that the Living Spells and these strange mirror monsters are guardians leftover from Maroe's time," Xanrym concludes, "not evidence of Fadheela's own power." He expresses his hope that while Fadheela clearly had the means to avoid or fend off Maroe's guardians, she is hopefully not powerful enough to have summoned or created such guardians herself.
Once The Company is ready to start searching this room, Xanrym heeds Syllen's comment from the start of the fight and asks whether everyone wants to try the other command words on the 5 other mirrors. He says, "The first mirror shows a view on the Earth Node on the other side of the Sullen Sea. If all of the mirrors possess some powers of divination, perhaps one of the other mirrors will show us something of real benefit." Of course, there's always the chance that speaking the command word will trigger more mirror monsters to burst forth. (Xanrym hopes not, but it's always a possibility!)
"If the mirrors are the only way out of here other than the way we came, then perhaps it's worth trying other command word..." Theldrin muses. "But we may encounter more unpredictable and dangerous results. We might first look for secret doors here, and possibly check some of the other doors we left behind."
He then walks slowly along the wall of the room, searching for any secret doors.
Investigation: 26
Theldrin finds another secret door, just like all you've found here so far, that opens inward to a hallway leading south.
As Theldrin finds the secret door Syllen lightly chuckles to himself.
“It seems that they should call this the tower of secret doors. Luckily we have the master of finding secret doors. It seems like there is much to learn from this tower when we have finished dealing with Fadheela.”
"Perhaps the negative consequence occurred because we chose the wrong mirror to address the command word to?" Khessa speculates, and begins examining the various mirrors for details that differentiate them (and that might connect them to the words "avail," "bewilder," "conquer," "dismay," "entreat," or "forget"—or their initials).
If the blonde arcane warrior doesn't identify any possible clues, she concludes: "...Or perhaps, for some reason, that Command Word necessarily implied that fight. Anyway, yes, then we might as well explore what lies beyond the secret place first... there might be further clues, too—beyond Fadheela's lair itself."
Khessa's Investigation: 21
[[ OOC: Lol! Khessa really put in the effort! ]]
Avery lends what help he can, looking through the area: perception: 12; investigation: 9
Xanrym is also impressed at Theldrin's find. He agrees with Syllen, laughing. "Indeed! Perhaps it takes a wizard to know how another wizard thinks!"
Xanrym isn't sure. He guesses that the mirror monsters were just the guardians of this room, waiting to attack anyone other than Maroe or the apprentices who attempted to use one of the mirrors. He thinks that the other mirrors should be safe to use now, but their focus is still on finding Fadheela. He agrees that continuing to follow the route through the next secret door makes the most sense. "If Fadheela came up to this room, then she must have left the room through Theldrin's secret door."
Theldrin humbly accepts the compliments with a slight, almost imperceptible nod. "Well, it may be more luck so far than anything..."
He adds as he looks around the group, giving Khessa and Avery smile, "And I've had excellent help." He then frowns and rubs his beard as he continues, musing out loud, "My thought was, the way the mirror creature said she ran through here, that she maybe used a different route than the mirrors themselves."
Khessa looks at the mirrors and deduces that the Mirror Shade was simply a guard. No matter what you did it was going to attack, the other pass phrases must do something else similar to the first one: Show images in the mirrors.
Khessa looks at the mirrors intently for a while, then concludes: "No, we didn't do anything wrong. The Mirror Shade was simply a guard. No matter what we did, it was going to attack; the other pass phrases must do something else similar to the first one: show images in the mirrors".
The blonde arcane warrior then goes to open the secret door and leads the way beyond it: "Let's continue our hunt. As Theldrin guessed from the Shade's words, Fadheela must have passed through here."
"Onward..." Theldrin nods and follows Khessa through the secret door, keeping towards the middle of the group as they move down the passageway.
With Khessa's information, Xanrym suggests trying the other 5 mirrors first to see whether any of them show them a location elsewhere inside the Necromancer's Spike. Xanrym says, "It seems that Fadheela is using the Necromancer's Spike as her base in Pedestal, but these guardians," gesturing to the mirrors, "don't serve her. Perhaps one of the mirrors will show us more about where in the Necromancer's Spike she is."
While Xanrym's Shield kept him safe in the last fight, The Company didn't make it through the last fight unscathed, and they're only doing OK now because of Syllen's healing. He checks whether everyone else is fine with continuing forward now.
Khessa pauses and replies to the bard: "I don't know, Xanrym... It doesn't seem very likely that the mirrors are meant to peer into the tower—in fact, the first one showed us an area quite far from here: the Node".
"But," the blonde arcane warrior shrugs "it shouldn't hurt to try, now that the guardians have been killed. As far as I'm concerned, we can go for it".
The tall adventuress waits a moment for the others to have their say.
Theldrin shrugs, "The monsters might regenerate and attack again, but it could be worth the risk." He seems okay with either choice.